BT  725  . Z55  1918 
Zimmerman,  Jeremiah,  1848- 
1937  . 

Help  when  tempted  and  tried 

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HELP 


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x  r/‘  f)  < 

Mi 


WHEN  TEMPTED 
AND  TRIED 


y 

JEREMIAH  ZIMMERMAN 

D.D.,  LL.D. 


BOSTON 

THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

MCMXVIII 


Copyright,  1918,  by  Jeremiah  Zimmerman 


All  Rights  Reserved 


I 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 


THE  MEMORY  OF 

MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 


/ 


FOREWORD 


I  have  written  this  book  from  an  intense  love  for  my 
n  fellowman,  and  an  ardent  desire  to  help.  It  appeals 
to  the  universal  experience  of  mankind,  for  we  can  no 
more  escape  the  conflicts  of  temptation  and  trial  than 
we  can  escape  from  ourselves,  but  we  may  triumph 
over  them  all.  We  need  to  keep  before  us  a  true  stand¬ 
ard  of  moral  and  spiritual  values,  lofty  ideals  and  a 
supreme  motive  for  living.  Such  a  life  will  be  worth 
the  living,  and  with  an  indomitable  will  we  may  triumph 
over  seeming  insurmountable  difficulties,  for  strong  will 
power  is  necessary  to  carry  into  execution  the  judg¬ 
ments  of  reason,  and  the  convictions  of  conscience. 
Man  wills  the  direction  of  his  footsteps  and  the  com¬ 
panions  that  he  chooses,  and  thus  he  may  be  said  to 
grow  his  own  character,  for  no  one  can  coerce  his  will. 

Man  is  human,  with  human  limitations  and  weak¬ 
nesses,  but  he  is  not  hedged  in,  and  doomed  by  fate,  for 
he  is  a  child  of  God,  and  God  is  with  him,  and  for  him 
in  every  temptation  and  trial.  Hence,  no  human  fail¬ 
ure  is  inevitable,  for  greater  is  He  that  is  for  us  than 
all  the  agencies  that  are  against  us.  Man  is  the  mas¬ 
terpiece  of  the  Almighty,  and  not  Mt.  Everest  that 
towers  heavenward  nearly  six  miles  above  sea  level,  for 
man  was  made  in  God’s  own  image,  and  in  his  soul  he 
mounts  up  to  God  and  communes  with  Him. 

5 


6 


Foreword 


When  severely  tempted  to  do  wrong,  then  seriously 
reflect  upon  these  words:  If  I  yield,  what  will  be  the 
consequences  for  me  and  my  loved  ones?  Consider  who 
you  are ;  created  in  God’s  own  image,  with  endowments 
for  holding  fellowship  with  Him.  Think  what  God 
wants  you  to  be,  and  will  help  you  to  be,  and  how  you 
will  degrade  yourself,  and  bring  sorrow  upon  yourself 
and  others  by  yielding  to  the  temptation.  Think  how 
you  would  appear  to  your  friends,  and  to  yourself  in 
a  life  of  shame  and  remorse.  Think  of  Christ  as  He 
suffered  for  you  on  the  Cross,  and  who  sees  you  and 
wants  to  save  you,  but  cannot  against  your  will.  Re¬ 
peat  it  to  yourself  that  God  sees  you.  “How  then  can 
I  do  this  evil  and  sin  against  my  God?” 

Then  aided  by  the  convictions  of  this  supreme  mo¬ 
tive,  will  to  resist  the  evil,  and  with  a  resolute  will, 
stand  by  your  moral  convictions  and  do  the  right. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  Temptation  Tries  Every  One  ....  11 

II  Guard  Your  Thoughts . 15 

III  Prejudice  and  Abuse  of  the  Tongue  .  22 

IV  Fact  of  Sin  and  the  Antidote  ....  27 

V  Selfishness  and  Intemperance  ...  3 5 

VI  Ideals  and  Character . 45 

VII  Decide  for  Christ . 51 

VIII  Power  of  the  Personal  Christ  ...  57 

IX  Men  Tempt  Themselves . 71 

X  Necessity  of  Self-Denial . 75 

XI  Temptations  to  Dishonesty  ....  82 

XII  You  Cannot  Escape  from  Yourself  .  .  88 

XIII  Will  Power . 98 

XIV  Self-Murder . 107 

XV  The  Power  of  Prayer . Ill 

XVI  Silence  Temptation  by  Quoting  the 

Bible . 116 

XVII  Our  Trials . 128 


7 


V 


HELP  WHEN  TEMPTED  AND  TRIED 


HELP  WHEN  TEMPTED 
AND  TRIED 


CHAPTER  I 

TEMPTATION  TRIES  EVERY  ONE 

THE  subject  of  this  volume  is  of  universal  per¬ 
sonal  interest,  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
has  learned  the  fact  and  power  of  temptation,  and 
wished  for  an  escape  from  its  trying  experiences.  Were 
it  not  for  the  daily  temptations  that  assail  us,  then 
we  would  have  smooth  sailing  over  the  sea  of  life ; 
then  there  would  be  no  moral  shipwrecks  and  crushed 
hopes  with  shame  and  remorse ;  then  there  would  be  no 
guilty  conscience  and  none  of  the  terrible  struggles 
within  the  soul  against  sin ;  then  there  would  be  no 
jails,  no  wrongs,  and  persecutions,  and  Paradise  would 
never  have  been  lost  and  the  mournful  history  of  man¬ 
kind  would  not  have  been  enacted.  Then  the  infamy 
of  Judas  Iscariot  would  not  have  been  chronicled,  the 
high  priest  and  mob  would  not  have  clamored  for  Ba- 
r abbas  instead  of  Jesus,  and  the  Roman  governor 
would  not  have  been  immortalized  by  his  appalling 
political  crime,  through  all  the  Christian  Centuries 
wherever  the  significant  words  of  the  Apostle’s  Creed 
are  repeated:  “Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate.” 

11 


12 


Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

By  temptation  I  refer  to  whatever  tempts,  entices, 
induces,  or  inclines  us  to  evil,  and  which  we  must  re¬ 
sist. 

All  know  something  about  this  subject  from  per¬ 
sonal  experience,  for  the  best  of  men,  as  well  as  the 
worst,  have  lamented  the  power  of  temptation  and 
their  failure  to  live  as  they  ought  to  live.  No  escape 
has  been  discovered,  though  men  sought  it  in  the 
cloister,  or  in  the  solitude  of  the  caves  of  the  desert. 
The  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  was  no  exception,  but  de¬ 
plored  the  fact  of  indwelling  sin,  and  we  all  repeat  the 
confession  that  “we  have  left  undone  those  things  which 
we  ought  to  have  done,  and  we  have  done  those  things 
we  ought  not  to  have  done.” 

Christ  Jesus,  the  God  Man  wrho  came  to  save  sinners, 
was  likewise  assailed  by  the  tempter,  but  He  alone  was 
sinless  and  could  challenge  His  enemies  to  convict  Him 
of  sin.  All  the  efforts  of  the  ascetics  ended  in  lament¬ 
able  failure,  and  had  not  so  much  as  the  merit  of  love 
for  others;  for  in  their  selfishness  they  forsook  others 
to  their  fate  and  sought  only  their  own  salvation, 
instead  of  following  Christ  who  ever  went  about  doing 
good  unto  others. 

For  many  years  I  have  mingled  with  all  classes  and 
conditions  of  men,  many  of  wdiom  had  suffered  from 
the  grievous  temptations  that  try  men’s  souls,  and  I 
have  learned  to  knowT  something  of  the  struggles 
through  which  they  passed  in  their  trying  experiences. 
In  my  efforts  to  comfort  and  encourage  them,  I  al¬ 
ways  endeavored  to  strengthen  them  for  their  trials  by 
giving  them  a  supreme  motive  that  would  induce  them 
to  summon  all  the  energies  of  their  being,  and  enable 


Temptation  Tries  Every  One  13 

them  with  strenuous  and  concentrated  will  power  to 
stand  firm  by  their  moral  convictions  to  duty. 

I  sought  to  awaken  their  dormant  moral  and  spirit¬ 
ual  forces,  and  to  take  hold  on  God’s  proffered  help, 
and  to  have  faith  in  Him  and  in  themselves ;  for  “faith 
is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world and  when 
a  man  loses  his  faith  in  God  and  in  himself,  then  he 
loses  the  battle  of  life,  and  defeat  is  inevitable.  You 
must  believe  that  the  Lord  reigneth,  and  that  so  long 
as  your  cause  is  just  and  your  purpose  is  noble,  you 
cannot  fail,  but  must  finally  win ;  for  in  such  a  life  we 
are  laborers  together  with  God,  and  He  who  is  for 
us  is  greater  than  all  that  are  against  us.  Hence  in 
the  greatest  conflict  we  must  not  despair,  but  grasp 
firmly  the  truth  of  Christ’s  presence  whilst  saying  with 
a  will,  “I  can  do  all  things  through  Him  that  strength- 
eneth  me.”  For  “God  is  faithful,  who  will  not  suffer 
you  to  be  tempted  above  that  ye  are  able”  to  bear. 

This  does  not  mean  that  you  will  be  able  to  achieve 
whatever  you  undertake,  for  the  best  of  men  often  fail 
to  bring  to  a  successful  issue  some  noble  purpose,  be¬ 
cause  of  the  opposing  forces  of  evil;  but  that  does  not 
mean  that  the  life  has  been  a  failure.  That  man  is  an 
utter  failure  in  life,  who  fails  to  undertake  and  fol¬ 
low  his  moral  convictions  because  of  opposition  and 
difficulties. 

We  are  not  responsible  for  results,  but  for  fidelity 
to  duty.  Paul’s  plans  were  often  thwarted  by  evil  men, 
but  he  persisted  in  following  his  convictions,  though 
his  fidelity  to  duty  meant  persecution,  imprisonment 
and  martyrdom,  for  he  felt  that  necessity  was  laid 
upon  him  to  follow  his  Master,  and  he  rejoiced  that 


14  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

he  was  accounted  worthy  to  suffer  for  Him. 

You  were  made  in  God’s  own  image  and  for  a  high 
destiny  as  one  of  His  children.  He  puts  you  upon  your 
honor  not  to  dishonor  His  name.  He  trusts  you  in 
spite  of  your  weakness  and  sinful  nature,  for  He  stands 
ready  to  give  you  every  needed  help.  There  is  tremen¬ 
dous  moral  effect  in  the  fact  that  God  entrusts  us  with 
the  extension  of  His  kingdom  in  the  world,  in  preach¬ 
ing  the  gospel,  in  carrying  on  institutions  of  mercy,  in 
leading  pure  and  honest  lives,  just  as  the  merchant, 
banker,  and  manufacturer  must  trust  their  employees. 

We  cannot  escape  the  moral  dynamic  or  effect  of 
the  great  motive  power  that  inspires  every  man  when 
he  feels  that  God  has  put  him  on  his  honor  to  fulfill 
the  duties  of  his  station,  and  that  He  expects  him  to 
he  faithful.  Such  a  realization  or  awakening  of  as¬ 
piration  after  lofty  ideals  would  tend  to  engender  love, 
devotion,  faith  and  indomitable  will  to  be  true  to  duty 
and  to  God. 


CHAPTER  II 


GUARD  YOUR  THOUGHTS 

WHETHER  temptations  come  from  without  or 
within,  they  must  be  fought  and  overcome  within 
the  soul.  We  must  recognize  the  fact  of  temptation 
as  a  stern  reality  and  that  many  of  the  prominent  men 
and  women,  as  well  as  the  obscure  ones,  have  gone  down 
before  it  in  disastrous  defeat.  We  must  reckon  with 
it.  We  cannot  try  to  ignore  it  and  affect  indifference, 
for  no  boasted  conceit  can  shield  us  from  the  strength 
of  temptation  that  assails  every  soul.  We  must  sum¬ 
mon  all  our  strength  to  overcome  it,  or  else  we  shall  be 
overcome  by  it. 

The  heroic  men  and  women  of  history  became  such, 
not  by  a  life  of  ease  and  indulgence,  but  by  being 
schooled  through  severe  conflicts  that  developed 
strength  of  character ;  for  human  greatness  can  come 
only  through  a  life  of  devoted  service  for  humanity. 
To  be  something,  we  must  grow  and  do  something. 

Jesus  warns  and  gives  us  the  antidote  for  tempta¬ 
tion:  “Watch  and  pray  that  ye  enter  not  into  temp¬ 
tation.”  We  need  the  warning,  for  thoughtless  indif¬ 
ference  has  caused  the  fall  of  many.  Especially  must 
we  watch  the  character  of  the  thoughts  that  we  en¬ 
tertain  ;  for  we  live  in  the  realm  of  our  thoughts.  They 
take  the  initiative  in  all  that  we  do  and  are;  for  they 

15 


16  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

awaken  desires,  create  tendencies  and  shape  our  lives. 
It  is  ever  true  that  nothing  is  so  potent  as  a  thought ; 
for  man  is  a  thinker,  and  as  he  thinks  within  him¬ 
self  so  he  is  and  does,  and  thought  rules  the  world. 

The  history  of  mankind  is  the  illustration  of  this 
fact,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  religious,  moral,  social, 
and  political  thought  of  the  home  and  the  state,  and 
the  practice  of  these.  The  thoughts  are  antecedent  to 
action  and  human  conduct.  No  man  ever  committed 
an  act  of  theft  or  burglary  before  he  thought  of  steal¬ 
ing,  and  the  same  is  true  of  vice  and  the  whole  cate¬ 
gory  of  crimes ;  for  the  thought  preceded  the  act.  The 
same  is  true  of  every  deed  of  love  and  mercy. 

All  the  charities  bestowed,  the  smallest  as  well  as  the 
greatest  endowments  of  millions,  were  the  outward  ex¬ 
pression  of  some  earnest  thinking.  Hence  the  impor¬ 
tance  of  right  thinking  and  of  guarding  our  thoughts 
carefully ;  for  though  entertained  in  secret  they  are 
potent  in  shaping  the  issues  of  life.  It  is  within  this 
invisible  realm  of  our  thoughts  which  no  eye  can  pene¬ 
trate,  that  the  all  important  decisions  for  time  and 
eternity  are  made.  Here  we  experience  the  greatest 
conflicts  of  life,  and  experience  the  greatest  joys  as  well 
as  the  most  bitter  sorrows.  Here  the  decisive  battles 
are  fought,  lost,  or  won;  for  in  these  inner  struggles, 
men  gain  the  victory  or  suffer  disastrous  defeats. 

Hence  we  must  not  only  abstain  from  evil  deeds,  but 
from  evil  and  impure  thinking;  for  thoughts  and  de¬ 
sires  express  themselves  in  deeds  just  as  effect  follows 
cause,  and  they  will  determine  our  conduct  and  char¬ 
acter.  Therefore  the  Prophet  Isaiah  exhorts: — “Let 
the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his 


17 


Guard  Your  Thoughts 

thoughts  and  return  unto  Jehovah,  and  He  will  have 
mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God  for  He  will  abun¬ 
dantly  pardon.” 

The  source  and  fountain  must  be  pure,  or  the  stream 
will  be  defiled.  The  stream  does  not  rise  higher  than 
its  source,  and  a  man  will  not  rise  above  his  best 
thoughts,  for  they  are  his  ideals,  visions,  and  plans  for 
life,  and  his  dominant  thoughts  will  bear  fruit  after 
their  kind.  Often  we  are  startled  by  hearing  of  the 
sudden  downfall  of  some  unsuspected  one,  but  we  saw 
not  the  secret  forces  at  work  in  his  low  ideals  and  pur¬ 
poses — they  wrought  the  ruin. 

Every  man  realizes  at  times  the  inner  conflict  be¬ 
tween  good  and  evil,  for  there  is  a  better  and  a  worse 
man  within  each  one  of  us — one  aspiring  after  lofty 
ideals,  and  the  other  falling  far  below  them.  I  am 
persuaded  that  all  sane  men  and  women  in  their  better 
moments  lament  their  sins  and  wish  they  were  much 
better  than  they  are.  It  is  because  of  this  indwelling 
sin  that  often  the  characters  of  men  become  such 
strange  contradictions — a  sort  of  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mj*. 
Hyde — and  of  which  we  ourselves  become  so  utterly 
ashamed  because  of  our  shortcomings.  It  is  not  the 
better  I,  but  the  sin  which  dwelleth  in  us  that  so  often 
defeats  our  noblest  resolutions. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  my  mother  showed  me  a  booklet 
containing  a  number  of  full  page  pictures  that  repre¬ 
sented  the  human  heart,  and  surrounding  it  were  all 
manner  of  evil  creatures  seeking  to  enter.  Into  the  first 
heart  they  had  not  yet  entered,  but  in  the  second  sev¬ 
eral  had  intruded  themselves,  whilst  more  had  gained 
entrance  into  the  third,  and  the  number  increased  with 


18 


Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 


the  series  until  the  heart  was  crowded  with  the  most 
loathsome  beings,  beasts,  and  demons,  iliat  book  made 
a  profound  impression  upon  me,  because  of  the  ter¬ 
rible  fact  illustrated  by  the  crude  pictures.  It  was 
the  sinful  heart  of  man  of  which  Jesus  said:  ulhe 


things  which  proceed  out  of  the  mouth  come  foith  out 
of  the  heart ;  and  they  defile  the  man,  for  from  within, 
out  of  the  heart  of  men  evil  thoughts  proceed — forni¬ 
cations,  thefts,  murders,  adulteries,  coverings,  wicked¬ 
ness,  deceits,  lasciviousness,  an  evil  eye,  railing,  pride, 
foolishness — all  these  things  proceed  from  within  and 
defile  the  man.” 

It  is  not  the  flesh  but  the  heart  that  is  the  seat  or 
source  of  sin.  Of  course  this  word  heart  does  not  here 


mean  the  organism  of  flesh,  but  all  the  mental  and 
moral  activity  of  the  soul;  or  all  that  is  involved  in 
the  intellectual,  emotional,  moral,  and  volitional  ele¬ 
ments  in  our  being,  and  these  constitute  the  real  man. 

What  makes  the  marked  lives  of  men — their  individ¬ 
ual  characteristics?  These  do  not  consist  in  their 
physical  proportions — in  their  height,  weight,  complex¬ 
ion,  and  general  appearance,  nor  even  in  their  ances¬ 
try  and  environment,  however  potent  these  influences 
may  be.  Men  born  under  the  most  adverse  circum¬ 
stances  have  risen  to  the  highest  stations  of  honor  and 
efficiency,  whilst  some  born  under  the  most  favorable 
conditions  have  fallen  the  lowest.  Lincoln  was  one  of 
the  multitudes  from  the  lowly  class  who  have  won  out 
gloriously ;  and  the  suicidal  millionaire  young  man  who 
recently  became  so  much  disgusted  with  his  debauched 
life  that  he  had  wasted  in  sin  and  selfish  living,  is  but 
one  of  the  tens  of  thousands  who  willed  to  disobey 


Guard  Your  Thoughts  19 

God  and  to  serve  the  flesh  and  the  devil.  God  is  no 
respecter  of  persons.  He  calls  upon  all  to  choose 
whom  they  will  serve,  for  He  would  save  all. 

But  if  the  young  wilfully  exclude  God  from  their 
thoughts  and  lives,  and  prefer  indulgence  in  sinful  de¬ 
sires,  then  retribution  will  follow,  for  the  life  cannot 
be  right  whilst  the  motive  and  heart  are  wrong.  Man  is 
not  absolutely  fated  and  hedged  in  except  by  his  own 
self-will  and  the  accumulated  power  of  the  evil  habits 
that  he  himself  formed  by  disobedience  to  the  explicit 
will  of  God.  If  he  refused  to  heed  God’s  warning  and 
the  examples  of  others,  but  secretly  polluted  his  soul 
by  lascivious  thoughts  and  sought  out  evil  companions, 
then  he  must  suffer  the  bitter  fruits  of  the  sensualist  ; 
for  the  subjective  evil-doer  no  less  than  the  objective 
evil-doer,  makes  his  own  hell. 

How  particular  some  are  in  the  selection  of  those 
whom  they  admit  within  the  limited  circle  of  friends ! 
They  must  have  some  social  standing  and  refined  man¬ 
ners  at  least,  or  their  doors  will  be  closed  against  them. 
They  would  not  open  their  doors  to  some  notoriously 
immoral  men  and  women,  and  yet  into  their  hearts  they 
may  admit  and  entertain  with  sinful  pleasure,  those  with 
whom  they  would  be  ashamed  to  be  seen  in  public.  This 
is  neither  consistent  nor  safe. 

The  common  house  fly  has  no  longer  a  friend  among 
intelligent  people,  for  he  is  known  to  be  infected  and 
a  dangerous  enemy  to  the  welfare  of  the  household,  and 
therefore  all  are  bent  upon  the  extermination  of  the  un¬ 
clean  and  deadly  infector.  But  we  should  maintain  the 
same  inflexible  and  uncompromising  attitude  toward  the 
subjective  or  mental  visions  of  the  associates  that  we 


20  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

entertain  in  our  thoughts.  We  cannot  prevent  their 
coming,  but  we  need  not  encourage  them  to  remain. 
We  can  expel  them  by  cherishing  other  thoughts  of 
things  that  are  pure  and  true  and  good.  We  must  care¬ 
fully  guard  the  character  of  whatever  is  entertained  m 
our  hearts;  and  we  have  been  warned  to  “keep  the 
heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of 

life.” 

We  must  particularly  guard  the  weakest  point,  for 
it  was  there  that  Abraham,  Noah,  Moses,  David,  Petei, 
and  all  their  successors  have  been  overcome.  Tempta¬ 
tion,  like  a  cold,  attacks  the  weakest  point ;  and  hence 
giants  in  strength,  like  Samson,  have  fallen  before  temp¬ 
tation.  They  were  strong  to  stand  against  certain 
temptations,  but  when  assailed  by  the  enemy  at  their 
weakest  point  they  fell,  just  as  the  city  of  Jerusalem 
did,  when  the  assault  was  made  at  its  weakest  point. 
The  apostle  sounded  the  necessary  warning — “Let  him 
that  thinketh  he  standeth,  take  heed  lest  he  fall ;  foi 
no  man  is  beyond  the  power  of  temptation. 

Mythology  tells  us  that  Achilles  was  supposed  to 
have  been  made  invulnerable  by  having  been  dipped, 
when  a  babe,  in  the  river  Lethe,  except  in  the  heel 
by  which  he  had  been  held ;  but  it  was  in  that  one  vul¬ 
nerable  place  that  the  fatal  arrow  penetrated.  It  is  all 
important  that  we  should  endeavor  to  know  ourselves — 
the  best  and  the  worst  that  is  in  us — our  strong  points 
and  also  our  weakest  ones.  These  we  must  strengthen 
by  growing  in  grace  and  by  guarding  them  against  sud¬ 
den  temptation,  lest  in  some  unexpected  moment  we 
should  be  overcome.  The  break  of  a  chain  occurs  in  the 
weakest  link,  and  we  must  know  where  our  weakness  lies. 


Guard  Your  Thoughts 


21 


If  it  is  in  hasty  and  violent  speech,  then  guard  the  mo¬ 
ment  of  provocation  and  try  to  suppress  the  uprisings 
of  anger  by  a  moment  of  silence,  until  you  recover  the 
mastery  of  calmness  before  you  speak.  In  this  way 
you  will  be  able  to  master  your  violent  temper  instead 
of  being  mastered  by  it,  and  you  will  escape  the  embar¬ 
rassment  and  subsequent  bitter  regrets  for  having 
yielded  to  intemperate  speech. 

We  should  often  take  a  careful  inventory  of  what 
dwells  in  our  heart,  for  whilst  many  thoughts  that  come 
have  been  unsolicited  and  are  unwelcome,  others  are  ac¬ 
cording  to  our  likings,  and  by  their  dominant  character 
will  tend  mightily  to  shape  our  lives.  They  grow  ten¬ 
dencies  ;  for  there  is  a  correspondence  between  the  ideals 
of  the  inner  man  and  his  outward  life,  just  as  there  is 
between  the  seed  and  the  harvest. 

To  live  aright  we  must  think  aright ;  and  to  do  noble 
things  we  must  think  noble  things.  It  is  unchristian  to 
hate  our  neighbors  or  those  in  other  churches,  and  when 
we  indulge  this  passion  and  cease  to  love  then  we  cease 
to  be  Christian. 

No  wonder  that  so  many  are  so  unhappy  and  dissat¬ 
isfied  with  their  lot,  for  they  are  out  of  harmony  with 
God  and  their  better  self.  It  is  not  so  much  due  to  their 
environment,  their  neighbors,  or  physical  condition,  but 
to  their  ideals  and  their  abnormally  developed  tempera¬ 
ment  or  frame  of  mind.  The  fault  is  not  with  the  world, 
but  with  their  own  ideals  and  purposes  in  life  ;  they  do 
not  think  aright  nor  give  Christ  the  preeminence  in  their 
hearts.  They  may  be  able  to  weep  with  some  who  weep, 
but  envy  and  selfishness  will  not  permit  them  to  rejoice 
with  them  that  rejoice.  They  get  no  pleasure  in  view¬ 
ing  the  prosperity  of  others. 


CHAPTER  III 


PREJUDICE  AND  ABUSE  OF  THE  TONGUE 

WE  know  the  power  of  prejudice  and  how  the  repu¬ 
tation  and  influence  of  men  have  been  destroyed 
by  it  when  base  misrepresentation  and  slander  attacked 
character  and  impugned  the  motive  of  the  one  assailed. 
The  noblest  men  who  served  our  country  most  faithfully 
and  at  the  greatest  personal  sacrifice,  did  not  escape 
the  malignant  assaults  of  base  and  unscrupulous  men 
because  of  overmastering  envy  and  hatred.  It  led  the 
Jewish  Sanhedrin  to  conspire  against  Jesus  until  they 
nailed  Him  to  the  cross,  and  it  persecuted  the  Apostle 
Paul  with  a  deadly-bitter  hate  until  the  Jews  at  Lystra 
excited  the  frenzied  mob  to  attempt  his  life. 

The  prejudice  that  comes  from  some  personal  griev¬ 
ance,  from  failure  and  hateful  envy,  not  onty  clouds  the 
reason  and  holds  conscience  and  sense  of  justice  in 
abeyance,  but  embitters  to  unreasonable  and  obstinate 
persistence  the  victim  of  this  immoral  distemper.  Plencc 
prejudice  becomes  a  potent  and  dangerous  weapon  in 
society  because  it  can  be  wielded  in  secret  and  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  one  assailed  who  might  otherwise 
defend  himself  by  disproving  the  charges. 

Jesus  warns  us  that  for  every  idle  word  we  speak,  we 
must  give  an  account — “for  by  thy  words  thou  shalt 
be  justified,  and  by  thy  words  shalt  be  condemned.”  He 


23 


Prejudice  and  Abuse  of  the  Tongue 

saw  the  wide-reaching  results  of  bitter  words  and  words 
that  misrepresented  and  conveyed  false  impressions. 
Words  do  not  die  as  soon  as  spoken,  but  the  influence 
continues  like  the  seed  that  has  fallen  into  the  earth 
when  it  germinates.  Contemplate  the  horrible  wrongs, 
the  crimes  and  wars  caused  by  an  awakened  prejudice, 
and  followed  by  poisonous  words  of  bitter  hate. 
They  have  destroyed  happy  homes  and  reputations, 
broken  hearts,  and  caused  riots,  persecutions,  and 
murder. 

Jesus  saw  how  the  multitude  He  had  attracted,  was 
alienated  from  Him  by  the  prejudicial  words  of  the 
priests  who  because  of  envy  conspired  against  Him  and 
His  teachings.  They  moved  among  the  people  with  bit¬ 
ter  hate,  and  strove  to  break  the  power  of  Jesus  as  they 
said  to  them,  “this  is  a  hard  saying,  who  can  hear  it  ' 
and  they  all  turned  away  from  Him,  even  from  Him 
who  came  to  save  them  and  whom  they  needed  so  much. 
Christ  in  great  sorrow  beheld  it  all,  and  with  deep 
solicitude  for  His  disciples  He  turned  to  them  and  said: 
“Would  ye  also  go  away?”  Simon  Peter  answered  Him: 
“Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the  words  of 
eternal  life.” 

What  an  awful  responsibility  those  priests  assumed 
when  they  undertook  to  prejudice  the  people  against 
their  only  Savior.  Sickness,  sorrow,  pain,  and  death 
came  to  them  all;  and  how  much  they  lost  because  the 
priests  had  prejudiced  them  against  the  Christ  who 
wanted  to  bless  every  one  of  them  with  the  blessing  that 
they  greatly  needed !  The  men  who  by  their  influence 
deprived  them  of  these  needed  blessings,  have  much  to 
answer  for,  and  no  one  would  be  willing  to  assume  such 


24  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

a  responsibility.  But  we  are  daily  exerting  an  influence 
upon  others,  and  we  are  responsible  for  what  we  say  and 
even  for  our  silent  influence,  for  there  are  times  when 
we  must  speak  for  Christ,  truth,  and  right,  and  it  would 
be  treason  to  remain  silent. 

Prejudice  unchecked  becomes  blind  and  deathless,  and 
has  not  stopped  short  of  murder  or  the  destruction  of 
whatever  or  whoever  stands  in  its  way.  It  led  the  an¬ 
archists  to  dynamite  the  building  in  the  city  of  Los 
Angeles  in  order  to  destroy  the  property  of  the  capital¬ 
ist  whom  they  hated,  although  they  knew  that  act  would 
also  destroy  the  lives  of  the  many  innocent  ones  who 
were  in  the  building  at  that  time. 

The  Gospel  tells  that  many  of  the  Jews  believed  on 
Jesus  after  He  had  raised  Lazarus  from  the  dead,  and 
the  chief  priests  met  in  council  to  resist  the  rapidly 
growing  influence  of  Jesus,  “and  they  took  counsel  that 
they  might  put  Him  to  death”  as  the  only  effective  way 
to  silence  Him.  But  the  people  went  out  to  Bethany  to 
see  Lazarus  whom  Jesus  had  raised  from  the  dead,  and 
this  living  witness  to  the  wonderful  power  of  Christ 
made  many  converts  for  Him,  and  the  faith  of  all  His 
followers  was  confirmed  and  strengthened.  Hence,  “the 
chief  priests  took  counsel  that  they  might  put  Lazarus 
also  to  death ;  because  that  by  reason  of  him  many  of 
the  Jews  went  away  and  believed  on  Jesus.”  Lazarus 
was  innocent  but  they  would  not  hesitate  to  kill  him 
in  order  to  destroy  the  power  of  his  personal  evidence 
as  a  witness  for  the  superhuman  power  of  One  who  had 
raised  him  from  the  dead. 

The  tongue  itself  is  not  responsible  for  getting  us 
into  so  much  trouble,  but  our  abuse  of  it,  and  because  of 


Prejudice  and  Abuse  of  the  Tongue  Qo 

the  selfishness,  envy,  jealousy,  and  hate  within  oui 
hearts.  It  never  acts  from  its  own  initiative,  but  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  our  thoughts,  feelings,  and  will,  for,  out 
of  the  abundance  of  the  heart,  the  mouth  speaketh. 
“The  tongue  of  the  wise  uttereth  knowledge  aright,  but 
the  mouth  of  fools  poureth  out  folly.  Theie  must 
be  knowledge  and  wisdom  in  the  man  before  it  can  be 
expressed  with  the  lips,  for  “wisdom  rests  in  the  hear  t 
of  understanding,  but  even  in  the  inward  part  of  fools 
all  is  blabbed.”  The  physical  tongue  is  not  at  fault, 
but  the  poorly  balanced  understanding ;  for  the  tongue 
is  only  a  necessary  member  of  the  instrument  for  the 
vocal  expression  of  our  thoughts.  It  never  would  be 
an  unruly  member  if  the  heart  were  always  right;  foi 
this  indispensable  member  is  wholly  controlled  by  the 
inner  spirit  of  the  man.  It  is  not  the  tongue  that  coins 
the  words,  that  causes  angry  sentences  and  scathing 
denunciations  as  well  as  vulgar,  obscene,  and  profane 
language  to  be  uttered,  but  the  sinful  heart,  the  hate 
and  violent  temper  within  us. 

Once  .Paul  breathed  out  threatenings  against  the  fol¬ 
lowers  of  Christ,  but  after  his  conversion — with  a 
changed  heart  and  mind,  he  exclaimed,  “Who  can  sepa¬ 
rate  us  from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus? 
It  was  the  same  tongue  that  uttered  the  remarkably 
changed  sentiments,  but  Paul  had  experienced  a  change 
of  heart — his  convictions  had  been  so  greatly  changed 
that  he  was  really  a  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus  “old 
things  had  passed  away  and  all  things  had  become  new.” 

It  is  all  nonsense  to  talk  about  men  who  are  leading 
bad  lives  having  good  hearts.  It  is  a  contradiction  of 
terms  to  say  that  a  man  has  a  good  heart,  who  by  his 


26  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

moral  infidelity  breaks  the  heart  of  his  wife.  We  may 
conclude  that  the  heart  is  not  right  when  men  indulge 
in  obscene  and  profane  language,  and  when  they  are 
controlled  by  an  irritable  temper.  Men,  and  women  as 
well,  might  control  their  tempers  if  they  would  cultivate 
more  love,  and  cherish  kind  feelings  toward  others. 

Think  how  our  heavenly  Father  bears  with  us,  though 
we  are  so  unworthy  and  fall  so  far  below  our  ideals ; 
but  we  repent  in  sorrow  and  shame  and  turn  to  him  for 
forgiveness.  But  Christ  has  told  us  that  unless  we  for¬ 
give  our  fellowman,  our  Father  in  Heaven  will  not  for¬ 
give  us  ;  and  we  should  think  of  this  when  we  refuse  to 
forgive.  We  often  have  wished  that  the  speech  of  some 
might  be  censored,  for  with  the  tongue  we  “bless  the 
Lord  and  Father,  and  therewith  curse  we  men  who  are 
made  after  the  likeness  of  God.” 

The  Apostle  James  refers  to  the  evils  of  an  unbridled 
tongue:  “Seest  thou  a  man  that  is  hasty  in  his  words? 
There  is  more  hope  of  a  fool  than  for  him.”  The  only 
remedy  is  to  guard  the  thoughts  and  have  love  abound 
in  our  hearts,  as  that  will  improve  our  disposition ;  for 
it  is  ever  true  that  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart, 
the  mouth  speaketh. 

We  have  little  patience  with  those  we  dislike,  and  if 
prejudiced  against  them  we  see  the  evil  only  and  not  the 
good,  whilst  “love  covereth  a  multitude  of  sins”  in  oth¬ 
ers.  This  is  illustrated  in  the  history  of  religions,  poli¬ 
tics,  and  nations.  All  depends  upon  which  side  the  man 
stands. 


CHAPTER  IV 


FACT  OF  SIN  AND  THE  ANTIDOTE 

HE  terrible  fact  of  sin  is  an  undeniable  one.  Men 


may  speculate  and  differ  as  to  the  origin  of  evil, 
and  ask  why  God  permitted  it,  and  none  can  answer  ; 
but  we  all  are  agreed  as  to  its  prevalence  and  heinous 
character,  for  it  is  as  universal  as  the  human  race.  It 
has  marred  the  divine  image  in  man,  so  that  his  history 
from  the  earliest  dawn  of  creation  has  been  one  of 
mournful  suffering,  caused  by  transgression  against 
himself  and  the  rights  of  others.  Man’s  greatest  enemy 
from  prehistoric  times  has  been  man  himself  and  not  the 
wild  beasts.  All  the  shocking  crimes,  the  wrongs  of  op¬ 
pression  and  disastrous  wars  of  conquest,  as  well  as 
standing  armies,  police  force,  jails,  reformatories,  locks 
and  barred  windows,  are  the  unmistakable  evidences  of 
the  prevalence  and  dreadful  character  of  sin. 

The  heart  sickens  as  we  contemplate  the  appalling 
war  that  has  involved  all  Europe  in  its  horrible 
slaughter  of  millions  of  our  fellowmen.  Never  has  the 
world  been  cursed  by  a  war  of  such  gigantic  propor¬ 
tions,  territorial  magnitude,  and  disastrous  conse¬ 
quences.  Never  has  there  been  such  a  destructive  war 
of  property  and  inestimable  human  possibilities  for  fu¬ 
ture  generations.  Never  has  there  been  such  an  utterly 
unreasonable  and  unjustifiable  war.  The  unspeakable 

27 


28  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

* 

shame  and  sorrow  of  it  all  is  that  the  war  is  in  this  gen¬ 
eration  of  the  world’s  highest  civilization  and  waged  by 
Christain  nations  against  Christian  nations  in  awful 
slaughter  of  Christian  men,  who  until  recently  were 
friends  and  labored  together  as  Christian  brethren,  for 
the  evangelization  of  the  world. 

In  the  face  of  this  world-calamity  for  national  ex¬ 
termination  by  a  wholesale  slaughter  of  the  best  men  of 
Europe  who  were  in  no  way  responsible  for  the  war,  and 
thereby  breaking  the  hearts  of  the  many  millions  of 
loved  ones  at  home — who  will  pretend  to  say  that  sin  is 
not  a  reality  or  that  it  has  lost  its  potency?  Nothing 
is  so  ruinous  in  its  consequences  as  sin.  It  debases  and 
enslaves  man  who  was  created  in  God’s  own  image,  and 
who  was  endowed  with  faculties  of  mind  to  fit  him  for 
the  highest  and  noblest  destiny  among  his  fellowmen 
and  for  communion  with  his  heavenly  Father — but  to 
what  shameful  depths  of  wickedness  he  has  fallen.  He 
has  surrendered  his  freedom  and  manhood,  and  become 
enslaved  by  the  inexorable  power  of  sin  so  that  he  fol¬ 
lows  it  with  devotion,  because  of  its  remorseless 
dominion. 

Men  and  women  of  every  rank  are  under  its  sway, 
although  pauperized  and  disgraced  by  their  servitude, 
for  their  reason  and  conscience  have  been  led  captive  by 
sin.  Sin  is  no  mere  figment  of  the  imagination,  no  theo¬ 
logical  bugbear,  some  ecclesiastical  tradition  to  frighten 
the  young,  but  which  we  have  outgrown  with  the  ad¬ 
vance  of  culture,  knowledge  and  scientific  discovery. 
The  young  may  be  deceived  to  think  so,  but  if  they 
yield  to  the  tempter,  then  they  must  suffer  the  sad  con¬ 
sequences,  and  through  life  suffer  from  the  sins  of  their 


Fact  of  Sin  and  the  Antidote  29 

youth. 

Sin  has  nothing  to  commend  it ;  for  it  has  no  re¬ 
deeming  trait  nor  compensation — nothing  costs  so  much 
and  gives  so  little  in  return.  Sin  means  to  miss  the 
mark;  and  the  man  who  expects  satisfactory  results, 
misses  his  calculation,  for  sin  is  a  great  waste  of  char¬ 
acter,  health,  happiness,  friends,  and  money — with 
death  as  the  wages ;  whilst  remorse  of  conscience  will 
complete  the  ruin.  Sin  has  destroyed  the  happy  home 
and  caused  the  greatest  sorrows  that  ever  afflicted  hu¬ 
manity.  There  never  would  have  been  a  Paradise  Lost 
had  it  not  been  for  sin,  and  we  would  have  Paradise  Re¬ 
gained,  could  sin  be  removed  from  the  human  heart. 

Sane  men  do  not  rejoice  in  their  life  of  sin;  nor  do 
they  feel  proud  and  publicly  proclaim  the  deeds  of  un¬ 
righteousness  as  something  worth  boasting  about.  The 
skeletons  are  kept  concealed  in  that  inner  closet  of  man, 
and  they  are  not  exhibited  to  the  public.  Men  would 
even  blot  them  out  of  their  memory  if  they  could.  There 
is  every  reason  why  we  should  at  once  resist  temptation 
to  sin.  Our  highest  welfare  is  at  stake,  and  the  future 
issues  are  all  uncertain  in  case  we  yield.  The  only  safe¬ 
guard  and  assurance  lies  in  overcoming  the  first  tempta¬ 
tion  ;  for  that  sin  renders  subsequent  ones  more  easy 
and  not  more  difficult.  Before  the  transgression  the 
conscience  was  clean  and  sensitive,  shuddered  before 
suggestion  to  evil,  and  with  a  righteous  indignation 
resented  every  inducement  to  an  act  of  vice,  whatever 
allurements  may  have  been  presented. 

But  the  man  who  yields  to  the  first  temptation  is 
more  likely  to  yield  to  the  next  and  each  successive 
one,  for  the  power  of  temptation  increases  with  every 


30  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

indulgence  ;  whilst  conscience  and  the  power  of  resist¬ 
ance  suffer  weakness  from  the  defeat.  Every  indul¬ 
gence  grows  like  habit,  whilst  conscience  loses  its  ic 
straining  power  in  the  same  ratio.  Vntue  stands 
abashed  at  vice  and  abhors  the  presence  and  sugges¬ 
tions  of  evil  thoughts;  but  after  virtue  has  yielded 
to  temptation,  what  an  awful  transformation  in  that 
woman  who  sells  herself  for  merchandise  and  stalks 
the  public  street  with  brazen  mien  to  tempt  men  to  a 
life  of  shameful  and  damning  vice.  The  descent  to 
hell  has  been  as  rapid  as  it  was  easy  after  she  took 
the  fatal  step  over  the  precipice. 

There  is  great  gain  in  every  victory  over  temptation 
to  sin,  but  especially  in  the  first;  whilst  there  is  seri¬ 
ous  loss,  weakened  power  of  resistance  and  increased 
susceptibility  to  temptation  with  every  surrender.  No 
moral  weakness  can  be  eliminated  or  overcome  by 
gratifying  it.  To  indulge  the  appetites  will  only  stim¬ 
ulate  and  develop  them.  Exercise  strengthens  but  does 
not  repress  nor  destroy.  By  yielding,  we  increase  the 
temptation  and  weaken  ourselves.  We  should  encour¬ 
age  and  develop  the  opposite  virtues,  and  by  the  stren¬ 
uous  practice  of  them,  they  will  become  strong,  and  we 
shall  be  able  to  overcome  the  evil  with  good;  but  to 
hesitate  or  to  compromise  for  once,  may  prove  our 
ultimate  ruin. 

No  man  is  free  from  indwelling  sin,  and  even  the  best 
of  men  realize  and  deplore  its  power;  for  all  come 
short  in  the  fulfilment  of  duty.  We  fall  below  our 
ideals,  though  we  struggle  against  the  tyranny  of  sin 
that  affects  our  thoughts,  desires  and  purposes — and 
often  defeats  our  best  resolutions  by  leading  us  to  do 


Fact  of  Sin  and  the  Antidote  31 

what  we  ought  not  to  do.  Whilst  we  have  no  power 
to  eradicate  the  indwelling  sin  of  our  corrupt  natures, 
we  may  summon  power  to  resist  the  full  exercise  of 
the  evil  dispositions  of  the  heart;  for  in  spite  of  all 
the  strongest  tendencies  to  evil,  the  committing  of  the 
act  itself  is  voluntary  on  our  part  and  yet  so  strong 
in  many  cases  may  be  the  temptations  that  we  are  on 
perilous  ground  and  need  the  grace  of  God  to  save 
us. 

We  must  turn  to  God  for  His  superadded  help. 
Alone  we  fall,  but  by  His  strength  we  may  stand,  and 
having  done  all  things,  we  may  stand  secure.  The 
weak  and  fallen  have  done  this  when  they  laid  hold  on 
Christ.  Then  we  have  fellowship  with  the  Divine  One, 
and  we  cannot  commit  evil  deeds  whilst  dwelling  with 
Him,  for  He  says:  “If  any  man  love  Me  lie  will  keep 
My  words,  and  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will 
come  unto  him  and  make  our  abode  with  him.”  Here 
is  our  hope,  our  safeguard  is  in  Christ,  and  away  from 
all  fellowship  with  the  organized  forces  and  followers 
of  unrighteousness  who  are  controlled  by  the  basest 
motives  and  passions. 

When  Christ  reigns  in  the  heart,  He  so  influences 
our  dispositions  and  aims  that  the  indwelling  power  of 
sin  ceases  to  exercise  dominion  over  us.  Sin  remains, 
but  the  spirit  of  God  reigns  within  us  with  dominant 
power — and  with  the  consciousness  of  His  presence, 
we  shall  realize  a  mighty  helper. 

Whilst  sin  is  inherent  in  every  man,  many  increase 
its  well-nigh  irresistible  power  and  bring  themselves 
into  a  hopeless  and  degrading  bondage,  by  disregard¬ 
ing  the  divine  warning  not  to  sow  any  wild  oats, — be- 


32  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

cause  of  that  stern,  irreversible  law,  that  man  must 
reap  whatever  he  sows — no  matter  how  much  he  may 
deplore  that  sowing  with  bitter  regrets.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  independent  or  isolated  acts  in  human 
life  but  all  are  related — as  cause  and  effect.  We  can 
never  get  rid  of  the  sins  of  our  youth.  They  are  not 
only  a  part  of  our  being  and  moral  consciousness,  but 
they  have  their  bearing  upon  our  subsequent  life.  Ols- 
hausen  states  the  truth  forcibly  when  he  says:  “Noth¬ 
ing  is  more  dangerous  than  the  erroneous  opinion  that 
an  evil  act  can  stand  alone,  or  that  a  man  can  com¬ 
mit  one  sin  and  then  stop.  All  evil  is  concatenated, 
and  every  sin  increases  the  power  of  the  indwelling  cor¬ 
ruption  in  a  fearful  progression  until  sooner  than  the 
sinner  dreams  of,  his  head  swims  and  he  is  plunged  into 
the  abyss.” 

The  man  who  deliberates  suicide  and  jumps  from  the 
tenth  story  window,  may  regret  the  act  before  he 
reaches  the  fifth  story  but  that  will  not  save  him  from 
striking  at  the  bottom.  The  first  step  we  take  is  the 
most  critical  one,  and  that  step  is  the  easiest  for  us  to 
control.  It  is  all  important  to  act  with  prompt  re¬ 
sistance  whenever  the  temptation  presents  itself,  for 
then  we  are  sure  of  the  mastery.  Then  you  can  over¬ 
come,  but  to  dally  and  encourage  the  tempter  may 
prove  your  ruin.  All  men  could  have  declined  to  ac¬ 
cept  the  first  strong  drink,  for  then  there  was  no  strong 
appetite  ;  and  had  they  refused  that  first  glass,  then 
there  would  never  have  been  a  drunkard,  and  the  world 
of  humanity  would  have  escaped  the  unspeakable  woes, 
shame,  and  crimes  of  intemperance.  They  became  en¬ 
slaved  by  the  despotism  of  strong  drink  because  they 


Fact  of  Sin  and  the  Antidote  33 

did  not  refuse  to  take  the  first  glass. 

Could  they  have  foreseen  the  results,  the  moral  and 
physical  wrecks,  the  sorrow,  poverty,  wretchedness, 
and  degradation  of  all  that  is  best  in  humanity,  then 
they  would  have  dashed  the  cup  from  them  and  the  aw¬ 
ful  history  of  the  curse  of  intemperance,  would  never 
have  been  enacted.  But  the  only  assurance  of  safety 
against  this  demon  of  drunkenness  lies  in  total  abstin¬ 
ence  and  safety  should  be  first.  To  abstain  means  ab¬ 
solute  freedom,  but  to  yield  has  meant  slavery  to  mil¬ 
lions. 

Sin  looks  very  different  after  it  once  has  been  com¬ 
mitted.  Then  it  is  shorn  of  all  the  blandishments  of 
the  tempter  who  made  it  so  attractive,  and  this,  every 
evildoer  has  realized.  The  strong  inducements  that 
once  incited  him  have  vanished  and  only  shame  and  re¬ 
morse  remain — as  the  defaulter  and  criminal  realize 
when  once  detected.  Sin  does  find  out  the  evildoer  after 
the  crime  has  been  committed,  and  dogs  him  at  every 
step  making  a  coward  of  him,  even  when  the  darkness 
of  night  hides  him  from  the  eyes  of  men ;  for  though  he 
escapes  the  detectives,  he  cannot  escape  from  himself 
and  the  consciousness  of  his  misdeeds. 

Remember  that  when  a  sin  has  been  committed,  that 
is  not  the  end  of  it;  for  the  consequences  remain  and 
we  cannot  escape  the  fruits  of  wrongdoing.  There  is 
an  awful  law,  and  as  infallible  as  inflexible,  that  “what¬ 
soever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.”  It  is 
still  true  as  when  first  spoken  as  a  warning.  It  runs 
like  an  irresistible  truth  through  the  masterpieces  of 
literature;  for  through  the  centuries  the  remorseless 
punishment  has  wrung  the  mournful  cry  of  anguish 


34  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

from  the  human  soul  of  the  transgressor. 

It  is  all  important  for  the  young  to  keep  themselves 
pure  and  flee  youthful  lusts  if  they  would  enjoy  healthy 
and  vigorous  bodies ;  for  many  have  been  shorn  of  their 
strength  and  suffered  from  weakness  all  their  days  be¬ 
cause  of  early  sins.  They  may  deplore  the  past,  bit¬ 
terly  repent  and  lead  a  better  life  and  God  may  for¬ 
give  them,  but  the  scars  will  remain ;  for  God’s  forgive¬ 
ness  does  not  carry  with  it  a  new  and  different  body 
with  restored  sight  lost  in  a  drunken  brawl,  nor  the 
limb  that  was  lost  by  an  act  of  disobedience. 

The  life  of  a  young  man  was  crushed  during  a  state 
of  intoxication,  by  falling  before  a  passing  train.  The 
mother  came  to  me  in  great  sorrow  and  said:  “What 
have  I  done  that  God  has  brought  this  awful  trouble 
upon  me?”  I  was  shocked  at  her  remark,  for  I  knew 
the  life  that  her  son  led,  and  I  assured  her  that  our 
heavenly  Father  was  in  no  way  responsible  for  that 
death,  for  He  was  the  author  of  all  good  and  not  of 
evil;  that  He  never  made  a  man  drunk,  nor  threw  one 
of  His  children  under  the  wheels  of  a  train;  that  the 
sad  death  was  wholly  due  to  her  son’s  own  disobedience, 
for  God  wanted  to  save  him  and  have  him  live  as  a 
faithful  son ;  and  had  he  obeyed  instead  of  yielding  to 
sin,  then  he  might  be  alive  and  leading  a  useful  and 
happy  life. 

Cause  and  effect  are  inseparably  related,  and  they 
who  sow  to  the  flesh  must  expect  to  reap  the  fruits  of 
their  sowings,  even  though  they  repent  later  and  find 
forgiveness;  for  God  will  not  restore  their  youth  nor 
the  wasted  years  and  opportunities  spent  in  a  life  of 
sin. 


CHAPTER  V 


SELFISHNESS  AND  INTEMPERANCE 

FOR  years  I  have  studied  the  ways  and  motives  of 
the  transgressor,  and  I  have  found  that  selfishness 
is  fundamental  in  all  sin.  The  evil-doer  wants  his  own 
way  and  will  not  conform  to  the  will  of  God  nor  yield 
to  the  entreaty  of  members  of  his  own  household,  but 
wrecks  his  welfare  rather  than  deny  his  selfish  desires 
and  purpose.  Analyze  it  carefully  and  you  will  see 
that  the  secret  cause  of  the  violation  of  all  the  Ten 
Commandments  can  be  traced  to  selfishness.  This  was 
true  of  the  first  sin  committed  in  Eden.  Our  first  par¬ 
ents  were  contented  with  their  estate  in  Paradise  until 
the  tempter  suggested  that  their  lot  was  grievous  be¬ 
cause  of  the  restraint  that  God  had  imposed  upon 
them.  Then  they  impeached  God’s  goodness  because  of 
that  single  prohibition — they  disobeyed  His  command 
and  yielded  to  the  tempter  in  the  hope  of  gaining 
thereby  some  advantage  for  themselves,  and  not  fore¬ 
seeing  the  irresistible  ruin  to  themselves  and  others. 

Selfishness  was  the  dominant  element  in  the  sin  of 
Cain,  who  because  of  envy  slew  Abel,  “because  his  works 
were  evil,  and  his  brother’s  righteous.”  The  same  is 
true  of  every  sin  of  disobedience,  unbelief,  lying,  decep¬ 
tion,  misrepresentation,  prejudice,  opposition,  perse¬ 
cution,  hate,  dishonesty,  theft,  coveting,  adultery,  ill- 

35 


36  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

temper  and  murder.  They  want  their  own  way  regard¬ 
less  of  the  will  of  God  and  the  rights  and  welfare  of 
their  fellowmen.  Hence  the  dishonesty  in  weights  and 
measures,  the  taking  of  graft  and  the  misappropria¬ 
tion  of  public  funds ;  for  it  is  still  true  that  “the  love 
of  money  is  a  root  of  all  evil,*’’  and  it  buys  everything 
that  is  brought  to  the  markets  of  the  world. 

I  never  have  been  so  much  impressed  with  the  weak¬ 
ness,  the  meanness  and  selfishness  of  man,  as  in  his  lack 
of  conscience  and  honor  in  meeting  his  financial  obli¬ 
gations.  There  are  many  who  sell  none  of  their  wares 
at  so  low  a  price  as  themselves.  “Thou  shalt  not 
steal,”  is  one  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  but  their  su¬ 
preme  selfishness  long  since  has  eliminated  it  from  their 
moral  code,  although  they  insist  upon  others  being 
honest. 

Jonah  was  a  striking  example  of  selfishness,  for  he 
would  have  all  the  men,  women,  and  children  of  that 
great  city  of  Nineveh  perish  rather  than  he  should  be 
denied  any  comforts.  It  was  selfishness  that  caused 
Judas  Iscariot  to  commit  the  crime  that  has  branded 
him  through  all  the  Christian  centuries  as  the  arch 
traitor  of  history.  The  same  sin  led  to  the  downfall 
of  Benedict  Arnold,  and  we  may  trace  to  selfishness 
the  blackest  crimes  of  history.  It  conspired  against 
Jesus  until  it  nailed  Him  to  the  cross.  Pilate  knew 
that  it  was  because  of  envy  that  the  high  priests  sought 
His  death;  for  he  said  to  them:  “I  find  no  fault  in 
Him,”  and  he  would  have  freed  Him ;  but  when  they 
challenged  him  with  the  terrible  threat  that  if  he  let 
Jesus  go,  then  he  was  not  Caesar’s  friend,  he  feared  for 
his  own  position  and  delivered  the  innocent  one  to  be 


Selfishness  and  Intemperance  37 

crucified. 

The  selfishness  of  the  evil-doers  cannot  pray  the  pe¬ 
tition  in  the  Lord’s  Prayer  “Thy  kingdom  come,”  for 
that  would  frustrate  their  wicked  ways.  They  never 
pray  “Not  my  will,  but  Thine  be  done,”  for  they  seek 
self  only  and  have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ.  They  would 
not  abstain  from  any  desire,  for  the  sake  of  others  as 
Paul  enjoins  upon  us;  but  like  Cain  the  murderer,  they 
cast  off  all  obligations  for  others  with  the  sneer  that 
they  are  not  their  brother’s  keeper. 

They  assume  an  air  of  strict  independence,  and  act. 
themselves  in  seeking  their  own ;  for  personality  is 
just  what  we  ourselves  are — nothing  less  and  nothing 
more.  It  does  not  consist  in  what  we  possess,  nor  in 
the  size  and  form  of  our  physical  being,  but  in  the 
character  of  the  inner  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual 
man.  Herein  is  the  selfishness.  A  wife  came  in  great 
sorrow  and  told  me  how  the  man  she  had  loved,  trusted, 
and  married,  had  become  intemperate.  He  grew  worse 
and  worse  until  shame  could  no  longer  keep  her  from 
revealing  the  sorrow  of  her  heart,  for  she  feared  lest 
reform  should  be  impossible.  She  told  me  that  one 
night  when  he  returned  at  a  late  hour  in  a  state  of 
intoxication,  he  cursed  her  and  struck  her  a  hard  blow 
in  the  face.  Overcome  with  grief  at  his  shocking  con¬ 
dition,  she  burst  into  tears  and  said  to  him  whom  she 
had  married  as  a  temperate  and  faithful  husband : 
“Charlie,  that  is  not  you.”  How  true!  for  it  was  not 
the  Charlie  that  she  once  knew  and  who  had  pledged  his 
love  and  fidelity;  for  drink  had  crazed  him  to  pauper¬ 
ize,  beat,  and  curse  the  very  one  that  he  once  fondly 
loved,  for  he  would  not  deny  himself  for  her  sake. 


38  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

One  evening  a  man  addicted  to  drink  came  to  me  in 
great  stress  of  mind;  for  he  had  reached  a  terrible 
crisis  in  his  slavery ;  and,  despairing  of  escape  after  two 
days  and  nights  spent  in  a  saloon,  he  had  resolved  to 
take  his  life.  He  had  gone  to  the  canal  that  ran 
through  the  city,  with  the  purpose  of  drowning  himself. 
As  he  stood  on  the  bank  of  the  canal  and  looked  upon 
the  water,  something  seemed  to  urge  him  to  go  and 
see  me.  He  obeyed  the  prompting  and  was  saved  from 
suicide  ;  for  I  welcomed  him,  prayed  with  him,  and  en¬ 
couraged  him  with  a  supreme  motive  for  making  a  man 
of  himself  by  living  his  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  and 
ever  looking  unto  Him,  the  author  and  finisher  of  our 
faith,  whenever  the  temptation  for  drink  tried  him. 
I  impressed  him  with  the  selfish  character  of  drink, 
that  leads  a  man  to  sacrifice  the  happiness  and  welfare 
of  others  merely  to  gratify  a  temporary,  depraved 
appetite.  I  gave  him  a  pledge,  and  with  a  will  he  vowed 
on  his  sacred  honor,  that  with  God’s  help  he  would  not 
touch  the  accursed  drink  again.  I  gave  him  a  few  lines 
to  read  and  to  show  to  any  one  who  would  tempt  him 
to  drink — that  was  years  ago,  and  he  has  remained 
steadfast. 

Of  the  many  whom  I  have  helped  to  throw  off  the 
demon  of  drink,  I  recall  a  sad  mother  with  a  boy  of 
twelve  years  of  age,  who  realized  his  father’s  maudlin 
condition  and  cried  when  he  returned  home  under  the 
influence  of  drink.  I  made  an  engagement  to  meet  her 
husband  and  that  evening  she  brought  him.  I  tried  to 
impress  him  and  I  read  a  brief  pledge  after  I  had 
prayed  with  him.  He  listened  intently  and  then  said: 
“Can  you  not  make  it  stronger?”  I  replied  that  it 


39 


Selfishness  and  Intemperance 

was  strong  enough,  and  that  he  would  never  fall  if  he 
kept  that  pledge,  for  he  would  never  get  drunk  unless 
he  drank.  Knowing  his  frailty,  he  burst  into  tears  and 
said :  “If  you  do  not  save  me  from  drink,  I  am  lost. 

I  replied  that  I  could  not  stop  drinking  for  him ;  and 
I  tried  to  arouse  his  moral  consciousness  to  feel  his 
duty  to  God,  his  wife  and  child,  and  not  to  gratify  his 
mean  selfish  appetite  that  was  destroying  his  home  and 
breaking  the  hearts  of  others,  as  well  as  destroying 
his  own  body  and  soul.  I  told  him  that  by  his  intem¬ 
perance  he  was  the  worst  enemy  to  himself,  his  wife 
and  child,  and  that  he  would  denounce  any  other  man 
who  would  commit  such  wrongs,  as  an  inhuman  mon¬ 
ster.  I  said,  “What  would  you  think  of  your  wife,  if 
she  were  a  drunkard?”  Then  I  appealed  to  the  best 
that  was  in  him  and  sought  to  fortify  him  with  new 
incentives  and  higher  motives  for  service  for  God  and 
humanity.  The  wonderful  transformation  followed, 
and  he  kept  his  vows.  What  an  infamous  crime  it 
would  have  been  for  any  one  to  tempt  that  man  to 
break  his  pledge  and  return  to  drink?  Many  are  re¬ 
sponsible  for  just  such  crimes. 

There  is  often  self-restraining  power  in  making  a 
solemn  pledge,  and  men  feel  this  when  they  ask  us  to 
give  them  a  pledge.  Whilst  the  man  is  morally  bound 
to  do  his  duty,  this  imposes  a  special  personal  obliga¬ 
tion  that  seems  to  grip  with  additional  power  his  self- 
determining  will.  He  solemnly  has  pledged  his  honor, 
and  he  dare  not  break  it.  He  has  made  a  special  vow 
to  God  and  calls  upon  Him  to  witness  to  the  act. 
There  is  philosophy  and  psychology  to  warrant  him 
in  making  this  appeal,  for  it  is  illustrated  in  history 


40  Help  When  Templed  and  Tried 

and  the  daily  lives  of  men  who  would  die  rather  than 
break  their  word  of  honor.  The  same  principle  and 
inner  moral  dynamic  are  here  involved  and  they  help 
to  hold  men  true  when  they  take  the  pledge  to  abstain 
from  the  curse  of  drink. 

Merely  to  denounce  the  evil  and  call  the  intemperate 
man  a  fool  is  not  sufficient,  for  he  knows  that;  but 
what  he  needs  is  deliverance.  Soon  after  the  arrival 
of  a  newly  elected  pastor  to  a  village  church,  he  saw 
an  intoxicated  man  leaning  against  a  lamp  post,  and  he 
said  to  him  “Stranger,  I  see  that  you  need  some  good 
advice.”  The  man  had  not  lost  his  wit,  and  at  once 
interrupted  him  with  these  words  :  “Now  there  is  where 
you  are  mistaken,  for  I  have  received  more  good  ad¬ 
vice  than  any  man  in  town.  I  need  a  drink.”  What  he 
needed  was  a  man  to  arouse  his  moral  and  spiritual  con¬ 
sciousness  to  action,  to  seize  upon  an  overmastering 
motive  for  leading  a  different  life,  so  that  he  might  will 
to  do  what  he  knew  that  he  ought  to  do. 

Among  the  many  strangers  who  have  asked  me  to 
give  them  a  “dime  to  get  a  sandwich  and  cup  of  coffee 
for  a  hungry  man,”  a  recent  one  was  a  graduate  of 
Washington  University,  but  as  he  confessed,  drink 
got  the  better  of  him.  He  wore  a  bronze  button  bear¬ 
ing  the  symbol  of  the  cross.  I  gave  him  the  dime,  but 
endeavored  to  strengthen  him  so  as  to  lead  a  new  life; 
and  I  told  him  of  the  precious  meaning  of  that  cross 
he  wore,  how  it  tells  the  character  of  sin  and  what  God 
did  through  Christ  on  the  cross  to  save  the  sinner.  I 
tried  to  inspire  him  with  a  lofty  motive,  and  not  to 
defeat  God’s  love  and  sacrifice  for  him;  but  when 
tempted  by  his  sinful  appetite,  then  to  press  that  cross 


41 


Selfishness  and  Intemperance 

over  his  heart  until  he  felt  the  power  and  presence  of 
Christ  in  his  soul. 

I  often  think  of  that  famous  Scotch  surgeon  and 
physician.  Dr.  Abernethy,  when  I  see  the  slaves  to 
drink.  One  day  a  man  suffering  in  body,  called  for 
consultation.  The  Doctor  inquired  as  to  his  diet,  and 
he  found  no  fault  with  it.  Then  he  asked  what  he 
drank.  He  replied  that  he  drank  wine  and  ale.  “Is 
that  all?”  the  Doctor  asked  him,  and  the  man  added 
that  he  also  drank  whiskey  because  it  did  him  good. 
Quickly  came  the  retort  “You  lie — you  drink  because 
you  like  it,  for  none  of  those  drinks  do  you  any  good, 
but  harm  only !”  The  man  remained  silent  while  Dr. 
Abernethy  told  him  of  the  injurious  effect  of  alcohol 
upon  the  human  system,  and  gave  him  the  best  reasons 
for  abstaining  from  all  intoxicants.  Then  the  patient 
with  serious  mood  replied :  “Doctor,  you  have  convinced 
me  thoroughly  as  to  the  pernicious  effects  of  all  al¬ 
coholic  drinks,  now  convince  me  that  I  do  not  like  them, 
and  I  will  never  drink  them.”  He  made  a  frank  con¬ 
fession  and  my  experience  with  drinkers  is  that  he  told 
the  truth.  They  drink  because  they  like  it  or  the  ef¬ 
fect  of  the  stimulus  produced,  but  in  so  doing,  they  are 
surrendering  their  self-mastery. 

Years  ago  I  became  interested  in  the  general  agent 
of  a  well-known  publishing  house.  I  met  him  often  in 
his  office,  and  observed  on  every  occasion  that  he  took 
up  a  little  bottle  and  applied  liquid  to  his  highly  col¬ 
ored  nose.  One  day  in  sorrow,  he  confessed  his  weak¬ 
ness  for  drink.  I  persuaded  him  to  attend  my  church 
the  following  Sunday  morning.  He  regretted  his  prom¬ 
ise,  as  he  told  me  later;  for  he  had  stopped  in  three 


42  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

saloons  on  the  way,  and  taken  other  spirits  within  him, 
in  the  form  of  whiskey ;  but  he  felt  bound  by  the  honor 
of  his  word  to  keep  his  promise,  and  he  came  to  my  serv¬ 
ices.  I  had  a  message  for  him  and  the  man  was  saved, 
for  he  was  changed.  He  had  taken  his  last  drinks,  and 
in  due  time  the  color  of  his  nose  became  normal;  and 
whenever  I  took  his  hand  on  the  street,  with  the  hearty 
grip  and  said:  “How  are  you  today,  my  friend?” 

He  replied  “Fine,”  and  pointed  to  the  nose  as  the 
sign  of  improvement,  for  that  had  once  betrayed  him; 
but  the  new  joy  of  his  soul  and  the  happiness  of  his 
home,  were  expressed  in  that  changed  countenance.  It 
was  the  same  old  body,  for  his  physical  organism  had 
not  undergone  the  change  that  his  spiritual  being  had 
experienced. 

It  is  a  most  grievous  wrong  for  the  state  to  license 
any  evil  like  the  saloon  for  it  militates  against  the  well- 
being  of  the  individual,  the  home,  and  society.  There 
can  be  no  justification  in  the  appeal  to  the  revenue  re¬ 
ceived  for  the  sacrifice  of  so  many  men  and  women. 
Take  the  report  of  the  State  Superintendents  of  Alms¬ 
house  of  the  State  of  New  York  recently  convened  at 
Poughkeepsie.  They  all  declared  for  national  prohi¬ 
bition,  affirming  that  more  than  seventy-five  per  cent 
of  all  the  inmates  of  the  institutions  for  the  poor  are 
due  to  drink.  Why  shall  we  continue  to  license  and 
protect  by  law  an  unmitigated  public  evil  that  with  un¬ 
failing  results  has  converted  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
fathers,  husbands,  and  sons  into  degenerates  through 
intemperance?  Is  it  not  a  crime  against  humanity  and 
the  weakness  of  man  to  create  special  places  of  tempta¬ 
tion?  We  should  protect  the  weak  and  not  expose  the 


43 


Selfishness  and  Intemperance 

confessedly  weak  ones  to  legalized  saloons.  Aic  we  not 
morally  responsible  for  the  unspeakable  loss,  sorrow, 
shame,  and  degradation  caused  by  putting  temptation 

in  their  way? 

The  following  from  Collier's  Weekly  of  December 
23,  1916,  is  a  strong  illustration  of  my  point: 

44 John  Keiner  of  Cincinnati  was  tried  for  the  muid(  i 
of  his  wife.  Said  he:  T  was  drunk  and  didn’t  know 
what  I  was  doing.  That  morning  she  had  refused  to 
get  breakfast  for  me.  I  went  to  the  saloon  and  got 
drunk.  When  I  returned  I  was  so  drunk  I  didn  t  real 
ize  what  I  was  doing’  ...  We  won’t  go  on  with  the 
details  of  the  hammer  and  the  butcher  knife.  Iveiner 
pleaded  guilty,  and  has  been  sentenced  to  life  impris¬ 
onment.  Those  who  made  the  stuff  which  inflamed  him 
to  slay  have  not  been  sentenced  at  all.  In  fact  so  fai 
as  I  could  find  out  when  I  was  writing  these  sentences, 
they  had  not  been  placed  on  trial,  or  indicted,  or  even 

named. 

There  are  a  good  many  distillers  in  Cincinnati,  whei  e 
this  Keiner  tragedy  happened.  When  they  walk  their 
prosperous  way  down  the  street  to  business  of  a  sunny 
morning,  no  doubt  they  feel  that  all  is  well  with  the 
world.  And  their  wives — the  distillers’  wives,  who  wear 
good  clothes  and  go  to  church  on  Sunday  we  wonder 
if  they  ever  reflect  on  the  Keiners  their  husbands  are 
making — and  the  Keiners’  wives.” 

Josh  Billings  who  was  a  philosopher,  as  well  as  a 
humorist,  was  not  wide  of  the  mark  when  he  wrote: 
44My  private  opinyun  of  Rum  iz — that  the  man  who 
sells  it  to  hiz  fello  man  iz  wuss  than  a  hiwayman — the 
hiwayman  demands  yure  munnv  or  yure  life — the  rum- 


44  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

seller  demands  both.” 

In  this  connection,  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote 
from  the  Outlook ,  some  lines  from  the  once  well-known 
pugilist,  saloon  keeper,  and  drunkard,  John  L.  Sulli¬ 
van,  who  believes  that  there  would  be  comparatively 
little  drunkenness  if  there  were  no  saloons:  “If  I  had 
not  quit  drinking  when  I  did  and  gone  to  farming, 
with  my  good  wife,  there  would  be  somewhere  in  a  Bos¬ 
ton  suburb  a  modest  tombstone  with  the  inscription 
on  it  ‘Sacred  to  the  memory  of  John  L.  Sullivan.’ 
That  is  why  I  am  quitting  the  farm  and  ‘Coming  back’ 
to  have  a  GO  with  a  bigger  champion  than  I  ever  was — 
the  champion  of  champions — John  Barleycorn.  There 
is  only  one  way  to  get  the  best  of  John  Barleycorn 
and  that  is  to  run  away  from  him.  There  are  men 
who  say  about  liquor  that  they  can  take  it  or  leave  it, 
but  they  are  the  ones  that  always  take  it ;  and  in  the 
end  it  gets  them.  I  am  leaving  the  farm  to  say  to  the 
young  of  the  United  States:  ‘Leave  liquor  alone. 
Liquor  leads  to  bad  companions,  bad  companions  lead 
to  evil  places,  evil  places  lead  to  disease  and  disease 
destroys  the  home  and  the  nation.’  ” 


CHAPTER  VI 


IDEALS  AND  CHARACTER 

IT  is  not  due  to  ignorance  that  most  men  yield  to 
temptation,  for  they  know  what  is  wrong,  as  well  as 
the  bitter  fruits  of  evil-doers  who  fill  the  jails  and 
drunkards’  graves.  Strange  that  such  a  terrible  pen¬ 
alty  should  not  prove  a  deterrent,  but  the  vice  and 
crimes  of  the  past  are  repeated  by  each  successive  gen¬ 
eration.  The  guilty  evil-doer  knows  that  he  wrongs 
himself  when  he  allows  himself  to  be  led  captive  by 
temptation. 

Much  depends  upon  our  ideals  and  supreme  purposes 
in  life,  for  they  shape  our  character,  our  influence,  our 
susceptibility  to  particular  sins,  and  our  power  to  re¬ 
sist  them.  It  is  the  kind  of  men  that  we  are  growing, 
that  will  determine  who  we  are  to  be.  We  grow  day 
by  day,  and  no  one  is  just  what  he  was  a  year  ago  or 
even  yesterday ;  but  we  are  different  because  of  the  ad¬ 
ditional  impressions  made  upon  our  mind  and  heart  by 
the  desires  awakened,  and  the  thoughts  that  have  had 
their  impact  upon  our  souls,  for  these  have  made  us 
stronger  or  weaker,  better  or  worse. 

Our  thoughts  are  real  things,  and  our  thinking  is 
the  most  potent  part  of  us,  even  though  it  may  be  poor 
and  low  thinking;  for  it  will  determine  our  doing  and 
being,  and  it  is  all  important  that  we.,  should  guard 

45 


46  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

the  character  of  our  mental  habits. 

We  must  be  watchful  as  to  our  habits,  for  they  are 
easily  formed  but  hard  to  break — especially  the  bad 
ones ;  and  habits  make  up  the  characteristics  of  the 
man.  In  later  years,  we  realize  that  we  are  the  result 
of  antecedent  thoughts,  studies,  purposes,  and  con¬ 
duct;  for  our  daily  life  of  activity  is  largely  mechani¬ 
cal  or  automatic  from  the  force  of  repeated  actions 
that  became  the  unconscious  but  controlling  habit  of 
our  being.  It  is  true  of  our  speaking,  writing,  walk¬ 
ing,  painting,  playing,  building.  The  expert  player 
need  not  keep  his  eye  on  the  key  board ;  and  the  best 
things  done  by  the  masters  are  done  with  the  least 
conscious  effort,  for  they  have  grown  the  habit  and  the 
power  to  do.  I  have  been  deeply  impressed  with  this 
fact  when  listening  to  great  speakers  and  blind  musi¬ 
cians  who  cannot  see  the  instrument  that  they  master. 

Much  will  depend  upon  our  ideals  and  purposes  in 
life.  They  become  our  moral  standards  for  daily  con¬ 
duct  and  they  become  powerful  motives  and  incentives 
in  directing  our  course  and  aim  in  life.  We  feel  the 
controlling  effect  of  what  has  been  termed  the  dynamic 
idea  of  purposeful  character,  for  God’s  moral  law  is 
written  in  the  human  heart,  and  it  approves  or  con¬ 
demns  according  to  our  conduct  or  obedience  to  that 
ideal.  There  is  a  mighty  imperative  in  our  ideals,  for 
they  are  our  deep  convictions  and  controlling  inner 
force  that  rise  above  passion  and  all  the  instincts  of 
the  lower  nature  that  would,  at  times,  drag  us  down 
to  their  level.  There  is  tremendous  potency  in  the 
ideals  of  regenerated  humanity,  for  it  is  the  power 
of  the  divine  Christ  in  the  man,  and  this  union  makes 


Ideals  and  Character 


47 


for  right  living. 

If  our  ideals  and  purposes  have  been  low  and  vul¬ 
gar,  then  we  fall  an  easy  prey  to  vice  and  the  sins  of 
the  flesh ;  for  our  antecedents  have  made  us  what  we 
are — either  moral  weaklings  or  else  having  the  courage 
and  power  of  our  convictions  so  that  we  can  stand  by 
what  we  know  is  right.  Had  Joseph  lived  the  immoral 
life  of  a  prodigal  son  in  Canaan,  then  away  from  home 
influence  and  as  a  slave  in  the  house  of  Potiphar  in 
Egypt  he  would  have  fallen  before  the  temptations  of 
an  enticing  mistress  instead  of  tearing  himself  away 
from  her  embrace,  as  he  protested:  “How  can  I  do 
this  evil  and  sin  against  my  God?” 

Every  city  has  an  efficient  fire  department  and  police 
force  to  guard  our  homes,  stores,  banks,  and  factories 
by  day  and  night,  but  we  have  no  department  of  pub¬ 
lic  safety  to  safeguard  the  moral  character  of  our  boys 
and  girls  when  they  go  on  the  streets  at  night.  The 
physical  well-being  of  the  people  is  guarded  by  an  effi¬ 
cient  health  physician  so  that  no  unsanitary  condi¬ 
tions  are  allowed  to  exist.  The  water,  milk,  and  food 
supplies  are  scrupulously  inspected,  for  health  is  a 
most  valuable  asset  for  a  city  and  the  prevention  of 
smallpox  and  fevers  is  all  important  lest  an  epidemic 
should  arise. 

But  there  is  a  culpable  neglect  respecting  the  moral 
wellbeing;  the  young  and  middle-aged  are  not  safe¬ 
guarded,  but  public  vice  is  allowed  to  keep  open  house 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  of  the  year,  and  the 
tempters  walk  the  streets  that  men  and  women  may 
be  led  astray.  Of  what  avail  is  it  to  society  and  to  the 
state  if  we  disregard  the  highest  welfare  of  our  people 


48  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

by  allowing  them  to  be  exposed  to  the  immoral  tempter 
and  consequent  diseases  that  sap  the  vitality  of  the 
body,  also,  and  leave  nothing  but  physical  and  moral 
wrecks.  The  fruits  of  vice  are  not  attractive  and 
could  the  patrons  foresee  the  end,  and  that  they  must 
reap  a  terrible  retribution,  then  they  might  escape  the 
tempter.  I  officiated  at  the  funeral  of  a  man — not 
long  ago — who  proved  untrue  to  his  own  family  and 
served  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil — especially 
the  flesh — with  the  result  that  his  slavery  wrecked  his 
body  and  reduced  him  to  poverty.  He  died  in  the 
county  hospital,  where  for  six  years  he  suffered,  not 
merely  as  a  pauper,  but  paralyzed  in  body.  During 
all  that  time  he  was  unable  to  speak.  There  was  noth¬ 
ing  in  that  life  to  recommend  vice,  there  was  nothing 
but  poverty,  pain,  shame,  remorse,  and  death. 

Curiosity  has  led  many  into  sin,  and  though  they 
did  not  intend  to  yield  to  the  temptation,  yet  it  be¬ 
came  the  fatal  turning  point  in  life,  and  they  were 
never  the  same  again.  The  glamour  that  the  imagina¬ 
tion  gives  to  its  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season,  seems 
to  make  it  attractive.  The  young  and  unsophisticated 
see  only  the  bewitching  painted  face  and  seductive  man¬ 
ners  with  enticing  garb  of  the  actor;  but  they  see  not 
behind  the  screens  of  a  wasted  life  of  sin — the  loath¬ 
some,  diseased,  and  often  skeleton-like  remains.  In  the 
hospitals  and  asylums  they  will  find  these  pitiable  and 
repulsive  physical  wrecks  of  humanity  with  not  one 
attractive  lineament  that  would  tempt  a  human  being. 

Were  there  public  museums  in  which  were  kept  some 
genuine  specimens  of  the  ordinary  fruits  of  vice,  in¬ 
temperance,  and  unrighteous  living — such  an  exhibi- 


Ideals  and  Character 


49 


tion  might  serve  as  a  powerful  deterrent  for  the  young; 
for  it  would  make  a  profound  impression  and  the  moral 
effect  would  be  lasting  and  for  good.  In  the  great  mu¬ 
seums  of  the  world,  I  never  have  seen  such  an  exhibit; 
but  there  should  be  such  a  department  added,  so  that 
the  young  might  see  the  logical  and  finished  products 
of  a  life  of  sin.  It  would  be  worth  much  more  than 
some  of  the  things  taught  the  children;  for  it  is  of  the 
highest  importance  that  the  children  should  be  trained 
in  our  schools  for  moral  living  and  noble  American  citi¬ 
zenship. 

We  have  public  exhibits  of  our  various  industries 
where  the  different  products  can  be  carefully  studied; 
for  the  exhibitors  are  not  asbamed  of  what  they  are 
turning  out,  but  they  compete  with  others  and  claim 
that  their  product  is  the  best  for  the  people.  The 
manufacturers  of  food  products  show  that  their  goods 
conduce  to  the  health,  economy,  and  general  welfare 
of  every  consumer,  and  refer  to  well  known  people  who 
have  made  the  test.  Why  should  not  the  same  prin¬ 
ciple  of  publicity  be  given  to  those  who  conduct  their 
business  in  the  red  light  district  as  well  as  to  the  sa¬ 
loons  ;  for  both  these  institutions  claim  that  their  busi¬ 
ness  is  legitimate  and  a  necessity  for  the  people.  Since 
this  position  is  contested  by  so  many  of  the  best  peo¬ 
ple,  why  do  not  the  managers  of  these  questionable  re¬ 
sorts  place  in  their  windows — or  in  some  public  places 
— tbe  finished  product  and  testimony  of  some  of  the 
well  known  men  and  women  who  for  years  made  a  most 
thorough  test  by  the  sacrifice  of  themselves  to  a  life 
of  poverty,  vice,  and  shame?  Such  an  exhibition  would 
be  most  repulsive,  I  admit,  but  it  would  tend  to  repel 


50  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

and  not  attract  patrons  to  places  that  lead  to  ruin.  I 
believe  the  young  would  turn  away  in  horror  from 
gilded  vice  if  they  saw  its  bitter  fruits,  and  why  do  we 
keep  them  in  ignorance? 


CHAPTER  VII 


DECIDE  FOR  CHRIST 

WHAT  is  your  decision?  You  can  determine  what 
books  and  papers  you  will  read,  the  kind  of 
people  with  whom  you  will  associate,  where  you  will 
spend  your  evenings,  what  pictures  and  thoughts  you 
will  cherish  in  your  mind,  for  in  that  gallery  of  imag- 
ery  you  see  visions  that  make  you  better  or  worse. 
You  decide  whether  Christ  shall  have  the  supreme 
place  in  your  heart  or  whether  sin  shall  reign  there. 
You  alone  decide  whether  you  will  go  to  the  house  of 
the  Lord  on  Sunday  to  worship  Him,  or  whether  you 
will  prefer  the  moving  pictures,  the  saloon,  or  the  house 
of  the  lewd.  You  decide  what  you  shall  eat  and  drink; 
the  clothes  you  wear;  and  you  determine  the  character 
of  your  associates,  for  you  have  the  freedom  of  choice 
— but  if  you  decide  to  become  the  slave  to  sin,  then 
you  lose  your  freedom.  Seek  fellowship  with  men  and 
women  of  clean  moral  character,  and  keep  away  from 
all  places  of  evil.  Do  not  sit  with  the  scornful,  nor 
listen  to  men  who  are  profane  or  obscene,  and  who 
slander  the  Church,  for  the  worst  men  and  women  are 
not  in  the  Church  even  though  there  are  so  many  im¬ 
perfect  ones,  since  all  are  weak  and  human.  The  worst 
men  and  women  are  not  members  of  the  Church,  but  the 
best  men  and  women  are  found  there;  and  they 

51 


are  m- 


52  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

terested  in  whatever  tends  to  the  highest  betterment  of 
mankind. 

Be  not  disturbed  by  what  some  say  flippantly 
against  the  Bible;  for  it  is  incomparably  superior  to 
any  other  book  in  the  world.  No  other  Bible  has  such 
a  lofty  conception  of  God  as  our  loving  heavenly 
Father;  who  sees  and  hears  us  when  we  pray;  who 
pities,  loves,  and  forgives ;  and  who  sustains  and  com¬ 
forts.  Our  Bible  alone  tells  us  that  “God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  who¬ 
soever  believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
eternal  life.”  You  cannot  match  that  passage  from  the 
Gospels,  in  all  the  literature  of  the  Sacred  Books  of  the 
East.  It  bears  the  unmistakable  stamp  of  divinity ; 
for  God  alone  could  make  that  revelation.  It  is  suffi¬ 
cient  to  save  the  world;  for  it  is  the  Gospel  in  the 
concrete;  and  its  precious  truth  in  connection  with 
the  rest  of  the  Bible,  has  been  inseparable  from  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church. 

At  times  the  professed  followers  of  Christ  and  even 
leaders  in  the  Church,  may  have  lost  sight  of  their 
Divine  Master,  turning  from  the  ideals  of  his  spirit 
and  teachings,  bringing  reproach  upon  the  Church ; 
and  yet,  making  due  allowance  for  the  many  and  great¬ 
est  evils  committed  under  the  sanction  of  the  Church, 
there  is  no  institution  on  earth  that  is  comparable 
with  its  unselfish  character  and  lofty  influence  over 
mankind.  It  has  been  the  foremost  and  mightiest 
moral  and  spiritual  transforming  power  throughout 
the  world;  and  as  a  sociological  and  economic  agency 
among  men,  it  is  invaluable  to  society  and  to  the  state. 
It  is  not  the  cost  of  the  Church  that  bankrupts  and  im- 


53 


Decide  for  Christ 

poverishes  the  homes ;  but  it  is  sin  that  destroys  happi¬ 
ness,  degrades  and  makes  paupers,  and  robs  men  of 
everything  that  makes  life  worth  the  living;  whilst  the 
Church  surrounds  the  young,  safeguards  families,  and 
ennobles  them  by  giving  lofty  moral  and  spiritual  ideals 
and  enjoining  conscientious  fidelity  to  their  neighbor 
and  the  state,  as  well  as  to  God. 

Auguste  Sabatier  in  his  Religions  of  Authority  has 
expressed  in  a  forcible  manner,  his  estimate  of  the 
supreme  place  of  the  Church,  and  I  quote  it  with  hearty 
approval:  “Taken  all  in  all,  where  shall  we  find  a 
higher  or  more  universal  school  of  respect  and  virtue 
than  in  the  Church;  a  more  efficacious  means  of  com¬ 
fort  and  consolation  than  the  communion  of  the 
brethren ;  a  safer  tutelary  shelter  for  souls  still  in  their 
minority?  And  what  part  played  in  history  is  com¬ 
parable  to  that  of  the  Church  in  the  history  of  Euro¬ 
pean  civilization?  On  the  other  hand,  what  can  we 
say  of  the  Bible  which  would  not  fall  short  of  the  re¬ 
ality?  It  is  the  book  of  all  books,  light  of  the  con¬ 
science,  bread  of  the  soul,  leaven  of  all  reforms.  It  is 
the  lamp  that  hangs  from  the  arched  roof  of  the  sanc¬ 
tuary,  to  give  light  to  those  that  are  seeking  God. 
The  destiny  of  holiness  on  earth  is  irrevocably  linked 
with  the  destiny  of  the  Bible.  Christianity  neither  can 
realize  nor  propagate  herself  without  the  Church;  the 
Church  cannot  live  without  the  Bible,  that  original  and 
classic  norm  of  religious  life  as  it  is  manifested  in  the 
Church  itself — -these  are  potencies  of  fact,  of  historic 
authority.” 

We  safely  may  say  that  no  sane  man  with  a  fam¬ 
ily,  ever  would  cast  his  vote  to  exile  the  Bible  and  the 


54  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

Church  from  the  city,  state,  and  nation,  if  he  knew 
that  his  particular  vote  could  bring  such  a  calamity 
upon  the  people.  Many  would  rejoice  to  free  the 
nation  of  all  existing  evils ;  but  none  would  live  in  a 
country  from  which  the  Church  and  God’s  word  had 
been  banished ;  for  that  would  mean  a  reign  of  terror, 
and  life  would  be  intolerable. 

Christ  announced  Himself  as  the  centre  of  the 
world’s  attraction  when  He  should  be  lifted  upon  the 
cross — and  that  power  extends  to  mankind.  Nothing 
is  so  potent  in  humanity  as  the  love  and  devotion  ex¬ 
pressed  in  voluntary  sacrifice — and  hence  the  unique 
place  of  the  mother,  and  the  patriot  who  dies  for  his 
country.  Among  the  great  paintings  in  the  collection 
in  the  World’s  Exposition  in  Paris,  there  were  three 
that  attracted  the  multitudes,  and  it  was  a  significant 
fact  that  they  were  not  only  religious  subjects,  but  in 
each  instance,  the  central  figure  was  that  of  Christ. 
The  one  was  a  large  canvas,  and  in  the  foreground  lay 
a  French  soldier  across  his  steed ;  for  both  had  been 
slain  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  the  brief  inscription : 
“Pro  P atria,”  told  the  sad  story  that  he  had  died  for 
his  country.  The  head  of  the  patriot  was  resting 
against  the  foot  of  a  cross,  and  upon  that  cross  was 
the  Christ  of  history,  and  over  His  head  was  the  sig¬ 
nificant  inscription  “Pro  Humanitate for  Christ  had 
died  not  merely  as  a  patriot  for  His  own  native  land, 
but  to  save  the  world. 

The  cross  through  the  centuries  has  become  the  uni¬ 
versal  meeting  place  for  all  Christendom.  In  spite  of 
all  our  racial,  linguistic,  social  and  theological  differ¬ 
ences,  it  has  been  the  unifying  center ;  for  our  peace 


Decide  for  Christ  oo 

was  made  through  the  blood  of  this  cross ;  and  in  none 
other  than  Christ  is  there  salvation.  Nowhere  else  is 
the  heart  of  God’s  love  and  mercy  seen  as  here;  and 
we  estimate  the  love  by  the  sacrifice  that  its  bestowal 
costs;  for  “he  who  was  rich  became  poor  that  we 
through  his  poverty  might  be  made  rich,”  and  in  the 
end  he  was  despised  and  rejected  of  men,  and  suffered 
the  cruel  and  shameful  death  on  the  cross  for  us. 

How  can  man  in  the  face  of  that  sacrifice,  reject  his 
Saviour  and  turn  away  to  a  life  of  sin?  God  saw  man 
in  his  lost  condition,  and  with  boundless  love  He  could 
endure  it  no  longer,  and  He  came  to  our  relief.  In  no 
way  can  the  human  heart  of  sin  be  touched  and  won 
to  Christ,  as  by  the  contemplation  of  the  sacrifice  that 
He  made  for  us  on  the  cross.  That  is  John’s  argu¬ 
ment  when  he  writes  “Herein  was  the  love  of  God  mani¬ 
fested  in  us,  that  God  hath  sent  His  only  begotten  Son 
into  the  world,  that  we  might  live  through  Him — we 
love,  because  He  first  loved  us.”  If  we  keep  that  love 
in  view  and  follow  Christ,  then  sin  cannot  reign  in  us ; 
or,  as  John  says  “Whosoever  abideth  in  Him,  sinneth 
not.” 

In  like  manner,  how  can  the  man  who  feels  interested 
in  and  devoted  to  his  wife  and  children  with  a  natural 
husband’s  and  father’s  love,  commit  himself  to  adulter¬ 
ous  relations  with  the  bad  woman?  How  can  that  man 
be  happy  and  natural  as  he  sits  at  his  table  with  his 
loving  family  that  suspect  no  evil?  How  he  must  be 
smitten  with  shame  and  self-reproach  by  his  conscience, 
when  the  innocent  and  loving  children  cling  to  him 
with  their  arms  about  his  neck,  and  with  kisses,  look 
into  his  eyes  and  call  him  their  “Good  papa!”  No  one 


56  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

need  tell  you  that  such  a  man  is  happy;  for  sin  is  not 
conducive  to  happiness.  The  father  who  keeps  himself 
pure  and  lives  a  life  that  is  worthy  of  his  children,  such 
as  will  make  them  happy  and  not  bring  shame  upon 
them,  such  a  man  gets  infinitely  the  most  out  of  life. 
What  a  hell  of  remorse  the  wayward  husband  must 
suffer  in  times  of  sickness — perhaps  brought  upon  him 
by  his  wicked  deeds — when  he  looks  into  the  pure  face 
of  his  loving  wife  who  never  even  suspected  his  un¬ 
faithful  life  of  immorality!  He  realizes  that  there  is 
no  reward  in  sinning,  and  that  the  way  of  the  trans- 
giessoi  fills  the  soul  with  bitterness  and  visions  of  per¬ 
dition.  Let  men,  when  temptations  come,  contemplate 
these  thoughts  and  bring  such  scenes  to  their  minds, 

thereby,  escaping  the  tempter  as  well  as  the  horrible 
realization. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


POWER  OF  THE  PERSONAE  CHRIST 

AT  the  mock  trial  of  Jesus,  before  the  Sanhedrin 
that  plotted  His  death,  Peter  who  stood  with  the 
servants,  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  follow  eis  of 
Jesus;  but  fear  led  him  to  deny  his  Lord  and  Master, 
and  he  confirmed  his  denial  with  an  oath.  But  Jesus 
who  had  warned  him  against  his  being  overcome  by 
temptation,  heard  that  denial,  and  desiring  to  save  His 
disciple,  He  turned  and  looked  upon  Peter.  That  look 
penetrated  his  soul;  and,  overcome  with  deep  repent¬ 
ance,  he  went  out  and  wept  bitterly.  He  never  lost 
the  power  of  that  look,  and  never  again  was  he  tempted 
to  deny  his  Christ,  but  followed  Him  faithfully  until  he 

received  the  martyr’s  crown. 

The  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  Jesus  and  of 
His  anxious  look  upon  us,  should  save  us  in  the  hour 
of  temptation.  When  most  sorely  tried  by  tempta¬ 
tion,  look  to  the  cross  on  which  Christ  was  crucified  for 
our  sins ;  in  imagination  visualize  that  scene  on  Cal¬ 
vary  ;  follow  the  mob  that  helped  make  up  the  proces¬ 
sion  as  Jesus  started  through  the  streets  of  Jerusalem 
bearing  His  own  cross  until  laid  upon  another;  draw 
near  and  contemplate  that  great  tragedy  of  history, 
for  it  concerns  you  greatly.  Your  eternal  destiny, 
as  well  as  your  earthly  welfare,  are  centered  there; 

57 


58  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

look  upon  the  face  of  Jesus  as  He  is  nailed  to  the 
Cross  with  your  sins,  for  the  world’s  redemption. 

“Let  not  sin,  therefore,  reign  in  your  mortal  body, 
that  ye  should  obey  the  lusts  thereof.”  He  that  abides 
in  Christ  and  walks  in  the  Spirit,  cannot  commit  these 
sins;  just  as  no  child,  though  tempted,  would  do  cer¬ 
tain  wrongs  when  knowing  that  the  eyes  of  his  father 
were  upon  him.  But  what  man  is  so  debased  that  he 
would  commit  sin  in  the  presence  of  Jesus?  No  man 
would  and  it  would  prove  a  powerful  safeguard  to 
cultivate  the  consciousness  of  Christ’s  continual  pres¬ 
ence  and  our  vital  union  with  Him. 

Christ  foretold  it  all  when  He  declared  that  “as 
Moses  lifted  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so 
must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up,  that  whosoever  be- 
lieveth,  may  in  Him  have  eternal  life.”  Do  not  these 
words  appeal  to  you?  Draw  near  to  the  foot  of  the 
cross  on  which  Jesus  suffers,  and  learn  the  lessons 
that  it  has  for  you  in  times  of  temptation.  There  you 
behold  expressed,  not  in  words  only  but  in  acts  that 

speak  louder  than  words,  the  matchless  love  of  God _ 

“For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life.”  “While  we  were 
yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  the  ungodly.” 

You  cannot  disregard  that  sacrifice,  for  you  were 
included  in  that  redemptive  act ;  and  you  are  included 
in  that  love  and  all-embracing  “whosoever,”  unless 
you  reject  Christ  and  refuse  to  accept  Him.  No  one 
can  question  the  fact  of  God’s  boundless  love,  if  he  will 
come  to  the  cross,  for  He  spared  not  His  own  son  in 
order  to  save  men.  When  tempted  to  despair  and  to 


Power  of  the  Personal  Christ  59 

wonder  whether  God  cares  for  you  and  whether  life  is 
worth  the  conflict,  then  contemplate  the  worth  of  man 
as  Christ  has  estimated  it  and  written  it  high  at  the 
price  of  His  own  precious  blood.  That  tells  the  worth 
of  man  in  God’s  sight;  and  Christ  previously  had 
stated  the  infinite  value  when  He  placed  it  in  the  bal¬ 
ance  with  the  world;  and  we  never  must  lower  that 
standard  nor  abandon  men  to  a  life  of  sin  as  though 
they  were  not  worth  saving.  God  thought  and  acted 
differently,  for  “God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  unto  Himself,”  and  that  reconciliation  unto  God 
was  through  the  cross — “having  made  peace  through 
the  blood  of  His  cross.  And  you,  being  dead  through 
your  trespasses,  did  He  make  alive  together  with  Him 
having  forgiven  us  all  our  trespasses;  having  blotted 
out  the  bond  written  in  ordinances,  that  was  against 
us  and  which  was  contrary  to  us ;  and  He  hath  taken 
it  out  of  the  way,  nailing  it  to  the  cross.” 

Can  you  prayerfully  gaze  upon  that  infinite  sacri¬ 
fice  of  God’s  love,  and  whilst  having  the  intellectual 
consciousness  of  His  presence,  deliberately  engage  in 
sin?  Such  a  vision  will  prove  a  powerful  deterrent 
against  sin ;  and  we  know  of  nothing  else  that  will  so 
effectually  fortify  man  with  a  supreme  and  all-potent 
motive  for  resisting  temptation,  as  the  contemplation 
of  the  suffering  Savior  to  save  us  from  sin. 

How  can  we  look  upon  the  face  of  the  crucified  One 
in  His  agony  for  us,  and  at  the  same  time  cherish  sen¬ 
sual  thoughts  and  desires,  or  any  sinful  purposes? 
Whilst  the  cross  was  once  inseparable  from  shame,  it 
is  now  the  most  revered  and  precious  of  all  symbols; 
for  it  is  the  symbol  of  Christ  our  Savior,  and  the  sym- 


60  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

bol  of  our  faith  and  redemption.  Cling  to  Christ  and 
you  are  safe.  Repeat  that  familiar  hymn  until  you 
live  it : 

“Abide  with  me ;  fast  falls  the  eventide ; 

The  darkness  deepens ;  Lord  with  me  abide ! 

When  other  helpers  fail,  and  comforts  flee, 

Help  of  the  helpless,  Oh,  abide  with  me! 

“I  need  Thy  presence  every  passing  hour ; 

What  but  Thy  grace  can  foil  the  tempter’s  power? 

Who  like  Thyself  my  guide  and  stay  can  be? 

Through  clouds  and  sunshine,  Oh,  abide  with  me ! 

“Hold  Thou  Thy  cross  before  my  closing  eyes ; 

Shine  through  the  gloom,  and  point  me  to  the  skies ; 

Heaven’s  morning  breaks,  and  earth’s  vain  shadows 
flee ; 

In  life,  in  death,  O  Lord,  abide  with  me !” 

You  and  I  must  see  Jesus  when  tempted  to  deny 
Him,  for  there  is  irresistible  power  in  that  look  of  our 
Savior.  With  the  consciousness  of  that  look  upon  us, 
we  cannot  plunge  deliberately  into  sin.  Keep  that 
vision  before  you ;  for  Christ  liveth  evermore  and  abides 
with  us,  though  we  see  Him  not.  It  may  aid  you  to 
wear  over  your  heart  the  symbol  of  Christ — a  cross — 
and  when  temptations  arise,  press  that  cross  and  let 
your  conscience  be  aroused  by  the  presence  of  your 
Savior,  who  calls  upon  you  to  watch  and  pray,  lest 
ye  enter  into  temptation.  He  who  stilled  the  tempest 
on  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  can  still  the  storm  of  passion  in 


Power  of  the  Personal  Christ  61 

your  soul;  for  temptations  lose  their  power  when  one 
is  conscious  of  Christ’s  nearness. 

We  have  fellowship  with  Christ  in  times  of  tempta¬ 
tion,  and  He  can  sympathize  with  us  in  our  conflicts — 
“For  we  have  not  a  high  priest  that  cannot  be  touched 
with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities ;  but  one  that  hath 
been  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin.  Let  us,  therefore,  draw  near  with  boldness  unto 
the  throne  of  grace,  that  we  may  receive  mercy;  and 
may  find  grace  to  help  us  in  time  of  need.”  The  temp¬ 
tations  of  Jesus  were  real,  and  with  intensity  of  soul, 
He  overcame  them ;  although  it  is  true  that  He  had  no 
sinful  antecedents  and  tendencies  for  evil  habits  such 
as  afflict  our  souls.  No  bodily  or  objective  presence  of 
the  evil  one  was  necessary,  and  doubtless  the  visions  of 
the  temptations  were  subjective  or  mental  as  they  are 
in  our  case  in  most  instances ;  for  we  need  not  see  the 
face  of  the  tempter  nor  hear  the  voice,  however  po¬ 
tent  they  may  be;  for  in  the  imagery  and  sensual  in¬ 
citements  of  the  soul,  we  have  most  vivid  and  real 
temptations.  There,  our  most  terrible  struggles  are 
realized;  there,  is  the  real  battle  field  where  the  forces 
meet  in  vital  conflict,  and  where  we  sustain  defeat,  or 
triumph. 

We  live  in  the  realm  of  our  thoughts.  In  my  mental 
imagery,  I  see  practically  all  the  principal  things  that 
I  saw  with  my  eyes  and  in  many  years  of  world-wide 
travel  for  study.  We  see  the  lives  we  have  lived,  our 
most  intimate  associates,  the  good  and  evil  we  have 
done,  the  battles  that  we  have  lost  and  won.  It  is  true 
when  we  say  “My  mind  to  me  a  kingdom  is,”  and  “that 
the  world  is  his  who  has  seen  it;”  for  all  that  I  have 


62 


Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

seen  is  not  only  a  part  of  me,  but  I  am  inseparable 
from  it,  and  I  would  not  be  myself  if  all  that  I  had 
seen  were  blotted  out.  Then  all  the  impressions  made 
upon  me  by  observation  would  likewise  be  blotted  out, 
as  well  as  the  deductions  gained  from  them.  The  law 
of  association  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  revive  the  past 
and  cause  the  scenes  and  events  in  my  travels  to  pass 
before  me  with  all  the  vivid  realism  of  beholding  them 
with  my  eyes.  Suggestion  brings  them  irresistibly  be¬ 
fore  me,  for  they  are  part  of  my  being,  and  they  affect 
my  intellectual  and  moral  consciousness  as  well  as  my 
efficiency  and  happiness. 

In  our  spiritual  consciousness  we  rise  to  fellowship 
with  God,  and  commune  with  the  Father  of  our  spirits 
— you  cannot  limit  the  vision  and  fellowship  of  man  by 
any  material  barriers.  You  may  confine  him  within 
prison  walls — like  Paul  and  Silas  with  their  feet  fast 
in  the  stocks ;  yet,  like  them,  the  spirit  is  not  bound, 
but  free  to  soar  in  elevated  thought,  in  hope,  faith, 
and  love,  whilst  enjoying  a  foretaste  of  the  heavenly 
joys  that  shall  be  ours  in  the  next  world. 

It  is  the  real  and  invisible  inner  man  that  is  assailed 
by  strong  temptations,  and  we  should  grow  strong 
moral  convictions  so  that  we  may  be  able  to  overcome. 
It  is  here  that  it  is  absolutely  true  that  every  man 
must  bear  his  own  burden.  No  one  can  penetrate  your 
soul  and  divide  the  temptation,  but  you  must  contend 
alone.  Many  a  devoted  mother  would  gladly  join  in 
the  combat  to  aid  her  wayward  child,  but  her  moral 
forces  cannot  be  transferred  to  the  one  who  has  aban¬ 
doned  himself. 

The  greatest  and  most  grievous  burdens  of  life  arc 


Power  of  the  Personal  Christ  63 

not  borne  upon  the  shoulders,  and  they  cannot  be  so 
easily  thrown  off  as  the  physical  burdens.  The  hod 
carrier  is  not  so  weighed  down  by  the  load  that  he  car¬ 
ries  upon  his  shoulders,  as  many  whose  hearts  are  al¬ 
most  crushed  because  of  blasted  hopes  from  misplaced 
confidence  or  from  bitter  remorse  because  of  sin. 

Jesus  bids  us  cast  all  our  cares  upon  Him,  for  He 
cares  for  us.  He  bids  all  the  sorrowing,  the  weary  and 
heavy  laden,  to  come  unto  Him  and  they  shall  find  that 
peace  to  their  soul  which  all  need,  but  which  the  world 
cannot  give. 

Whilst  we  bring  many  of  our  troubles  upon  our¬ 
selves  because  of  our  shortcomings,  there  are  others 
for  which  we  are  not  responsible, — such  as  the  afflic¬ 
tions  that  come  from  the  loss  of  loved  ones  as  well  as 
the  infirmities  and  disappointments  of  advancing  years, 
and  the  base  ingratitude  of  those  we  befriend,  besides 
the  many  wrongs  that  we  suffer  from  evil-doers.  David 
was  not  the  only  father  who  wept  bitterly  over  an  un¬ 
grateful  and  unworthy  son.  The  Apostle  Paul  re¬ 
counts  his  long  list  of  sufferings  even  from  false 
brethren ;  and  the  Psalmist  laments  a  similar  experience 
when  he  says:  “Yea  mine  own  particular  friend  in 
whom  I  trusted,  who  did  eat  of  my  bread,  hath 
lifted  up  his  heel  against  me.”  The  supreme  selfishness 
of  many  who  owe  so  much  to  us,  often  has  filled  the 
soul  with  sorrow  and  weighed  it  down  with  grief;  but 
do  not  think  too  much  of  such  trouble  and  grow  mor¬ 
bid.  Nay,  “Cast  thy  burden  on  the  Lord,  and  He  will 
sustain  thee.”  No  matter  what  the  burden  may  be,  the 
Lord  is  willing  and  able  to  help  you.  “He  healeth  the 
broken  in  heart,  and  bindeth  up  their  wounds.”  He 


64  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

sees  you  and  wants  to  help  you. 

There  are  no  authentic  portraits  of  Jesus,  though 
we  are  familiar  with  the  conventional  ones  of  later  art¬ 
ists  ;  yet  there  are  many  contemporary  authentic  por¬ 
traits  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  rulers  of  that  period. 
We  can  look  upon  the  portrait  of  the  Emperor  Ti¬ 
berius  under  whose  reign  Jesus  suffered  death,  and 
whose  portrait  Jesus  saw  when  He  asked  them  to  show 
Him  the  tribute  money ;  and  pointing  to  the  effigy  of 
the  Roman  ruler  placed  upon  it,  He  replied  to  the  ene¬ 
mies  who  sought  to  entrap  Him :  “Render  therefore  unto 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar’s,  and  unto  God  the 
things  that  are  God’s.” 

Looking  upon  a  coin  identical  with  the  one  that  they 
brought  to  Jesus,  may  give  vivid  realism  to  that  scene, 
but  we  need  not  see  the  Christ  in  the  body  with  our 
eyes.  The  gospels  are  full  of  moral  portraits  of  the 
Christ  that  we  need  for  all  the  varied  experiences  of 
life.  The  faith  of  the  discipl  es  increased  and  they  grew 
stronger  after  the  visible  presence  was  withdrawn  from 
them.  Then  they  went  forth  with  more  than  imperial 
power  to  conquer  the  world  for  Christ;  for  they  be¬ 
lieved  and  felt  that  God  was  with  them.  Would  you 
see  God?  Then  get  the  view  of  Christ — for  God  was 
in  Christ,  and  that  is  our  nearest  and  clearest  view  of 
God.  Jesus  is  no  less  real  and  near  to  us  than  He  was 
to  the  Apostles.  Reality  is  not  restricted  to  contem¬ 
porary  witnesses.  Time  and  distance  do  not  affect  the 
leality  of  Christ  and  the  Gospels.  We  make  a  mistake 
in  trying  with  one  stretch  to  reach  across  the  vast  in¬ 
tervening  period  that  connects  us  with  the  actual  wit¬ 
nesses  of  Christ.  Nearly  nineteen  centuries,  or  fifty- 


Power  of  the  Personal  Christ  65 

six  generations,  must  be  traversed;  and  the  distance 
to  be  traversed  is  so  great,  that  the  events  seem  to  be¬ 
come  hazy  at  times.  We  must  not  remain  here  and 
plant  ourselves  here  in  America  ;  but  we  must  go  back 
in  the  distant  past  and  become  eye-witnesses  with  the 
disciples  in  the  land  of  Palestine  and  stand  there  as 
our  starting  point;  for  that  is  history.  Then  after 
Pentecost,  follow  the  Apostles  in  their  preaching,  list¬ 
ening  as  they  gave  the  message  to  others,  they  to  the 
next  generation,  they  to  the  next,  and  so  on  through 
all  the  centuries.  In  every  case  they  were  living  wit¬ 
nesses,  and  through  this  unbroken  line  of  living  wit¬ 
nesses,  we  may  go  back  to  the  living  source,  Jesus 
Christ  Himself. 

Paul’s  remedy  for  every  one  who  would  escape  the 
power  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh  is  not  by  an  effort  to 
eradicate  the  essential  elements  of  our  being,  for  these 
belong  to  the  strongest  and  best  Christian  men;  it  is 
not  by  mere  repression  nor  the  extinction  of  passion, 
but  by  keeping  them  in  subjection  by  the  dominant 
moral  virtues  developed,  and  which  should  control  our 
being.  The  body  is  not  to  be  despised  with  its  mem¬ 
bers,  for  it  is  God’s  handiwork;  and  our  Lord  and 
Savior  assumed  a  natural  human  body,  for  He  became 
incarnate — was  born  in  the  flesh  (of  a  woman)  and 
dwelt  among  men.  It  is  not  true  that  the  body  is  vile, 
as  mis-translated  in  the  so-called  authorized  version, 
although  it  is  often  polluted  by  sensual  indulgence. 

It  is  not  the  flesh  of  the  body,  but  the  corrupt  spirit¬ 
ual  nature  of  man  that  is  the  source  and  seat  of  sin, 
and  this  Jesus  designated  as  the  heart  when  He  spoke 
of  it  as  an  inner  reservoir  of  moral  impurity  and 


66  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

iniquity  that  defiles  man.  Every  one  has  realized  and 
deplored  his  sinful  nature.  Various  futile  endeavors 
have  been  made  to  eradicate  it,  as  seen  among  the  fakirs 
and  more  than  five  million  religious  mendicants  of  In¬ 
dia.  Christian  ascetics  have  tried  the  solitude  of  the 
caves  and  of  the  desert.  Some  even  have  had  them¬ 
selves  immured  in  damp  and  dark  subterranean  cells 
for  life,  as  I  saw  in  the  famous  Troitska  monastery 
near  the  city  of  Moscow;  until  the  better  judgment  of 
a  Czar  led  him  to  suppress  it.  All  these  expedients 
were  ineffectual,  for  the  penitents  never  could  escape 
themselves ;  and  hence  doubts  and  the  temptations  of 
their  sinful  natures,  the  thoughts  and  visions  of  the 
solicitations  to  sin  and  the  unsanctified  characters  fol¬ 
lowed  them  still. 

Paul’s  method  was  not  that  they  should  retire  from 
the  world,  that  they  should  emasculate  or  unsex  them¬ 
selves  and  cease  to  be  human  men  and  women — for  he 
did  not  demand  the  impossible — but  that  through  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  should  become  new 
creatures  in  Christ  Jesus;  or  as  he  expresses  it  in  the 
concrete:  “Walk  in  the  Spirit  and  ye  shall  not  fulfill 
the  lusts  of  the  flesh.”  There  is  a  higher  and  a  lower, 
a  better  and  a  worse  self  in  every  one  of  us,  and  we  all 
realize  the  conflict  between  them.  It  is  the  corrupt 
sinful  self  that  would  tyrranize  over  us,  but  which  loses 
its  power  when  we  dwell  in  the  Spirit  of  Christ  with  a 
supreme  purpose  to  do  his  will. 

In  our  moral  and  intellectual  consciousness,  we  may 
know  our  fellowship  with  Christ  through  the  reign  of 
His  spirit  in  us,  because  of  the  dominant  power  in  in¬ 
spiring  us  to  persist  with  all  the  moral  intensity  of  our 


Power  of  the  Personal  Christ  67 

being  in  following  convictions  of  duty.  Sin  remains, 
but  is  kept  in  subjection  instead  of  having  dominion 
over  us.  By  the  term  flesh,  Paul  does  not  mean  the 
body,  for  he  speaks  of  sins  that  have  no  connection 
with  the  body ;  but  we  may  include  all  that  is  embraced 
in  human  nature — the  mind,  impulses,  physical  appe¬ 
tites,  and  whatever  enters  into  conflict  with  the  higher 
spiritual  being.  The  two  are  so  contrary  in  charac¬ 
ter  that  while  you  walk  in  the  Spirit,  you  cannot  in¬ 
dulge  nor  fulfill  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  any  more  than 
the  man  that  is  truly  devoted  to  his  wife  will  abandon 
her  and  seek  out  the  harlot.  The  greater  the  intensity 
of  the  devotion  and  love  for  his  wife,  the  greater  will 
be  bis  fidelity  and  security ;  for  he  would  shudder  at 
any  illicit  suggestion,  and  would  abhor  the  degradation 
of  an  adulterous  act.  If  God’s  Spirit  dwells  in  us,  then 
we  shall  not  be  enslaved  by  sin;  for  Christ  will  rule 
in  our  hearts ;  and  as  God’s  children,  our  highest  ideal 
and  purpose  in  life  will  be  to  do  His  will.  This  should 
appear  to  be  the  most  normal  and  natural  as  well  as 
the  highest  state  of  our  being,  just  as  the  child  should 
be  true  to  his  parents,  and  the  husband  true  to  his 
wife.  God  is  our  loving  heavenly  Father,  the  source 
of  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  and  man  only  finds  him¬ 
self  at  his  best  when  living  right  with  God.  Why 
should  men  contend  that  it  is  not  natural  nor  possible 
for  them  to  live  a  spiritual  life  and  to  be  happy  in 
God’s  service,  but  that  it  is  necessary  for  the  essen¬ 
tial  nature  of  some  that  they  should  be  estranged  from 
their  Maker?  Such  a  position  is  not  in  accordance 
with  divine  revelation  and  our  conception  of  man’s 
highest  destiny.  We  want  men  to  be  free,  not  slaves 


68  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

to  any  evil;  but  the  man  who  commits  sin  is  the  servant 
of  sin,  and  the  bondage  is  degrading. 

Far  better  to  help  men  conquer  in  this  irrepressible 
conflict  with  evil,  which  is  possible  by  developing  a 
Christian  character.  They  must  grow  in  grace  and 
into  a  Chris t-likeness,  by  fellowship  with  Him.  If  they 
abide  in  Christ  they  cannot  willfully  yield  to  inordin¬ 
ate  lusts. 

To  overcome  an  evil  tendency,  we  must  cultivate  the 
opposite ;  supplant  the  vice  with  some  positive  virtue ; 
overcome  the  evil  with  good.  If  your  boys  eat  green 
apples,  give  them  plenty  of  ripe  ones.  If  you  would 
keep  them  from  questionable  places,  make  their  home 
more  attractive  for  them,  and  have  their  friends  come 
and  play  their  games  in  your  homes,  for  boys  will  be 
active  and  it  is  far  better  to  meet  them  in  your  home 
than  in  the  saloon.  Crowd  out  the  bad  by  introducing 
the  good,  just  as  you  expel  the  darkness  by  admitting 
the  light.  You  cannot  empty  yourself  of  evil  except 
by  supplanting  it  with  good.  It  is  true  in  the  moral  as 
in  the  physical  world,  that  nature  abhors  a  vacuum. 
It  is  still  true  that  idleness  is  the  mother  of  vice,  and 
Satan  finds  work  for  idle  hands  to  do.  We  must  be¬ 
come  interested  and  actively  engaged  in  some  useful 
and  honorable  occupation,  for  to  be  inactive  is  to  die. 
Exercise  is  necessary  for  our  physical  and  moral  well¬ 
being.  The  strong  athlete  becomes  so  through  vigor¬ 
ous  exercise  and  a  strict  regard  for  the  laws  of  health. 
Each  man  must  decide  for  himself  whether  he  will  be 
the  master  or  the  slave  to  his  appetites ;  whether  the 
lower  or  the  higher  being  in  him  shall  rule,  the  animal 
or  the  spiritual;  he  alone  is  the  sovereign  master  in  his 


Power  of  the  Personal  Christ  69 

freedom  of  choice,  and  no  one  else  can  decide  for  him. 
He  selects  his  own  associates  and  the  places  that  he 
frequents,  as  well  as  the  thoughts  and  desires  that  he 
cherishes,  and  the  ideals  and  purposes  after  which  he 
aspires.  “Choose  ye  this  day,  whom  ye  will  serve.” 
This  is  your  privilege;  for  “Now  is  the  accepted  time 
— now  is  the  day  of  your  salvation.” 

Methods  of  mere  negation  have  little  to  commend 
themselves.  You  cannot  kill  the  appetites  or  passions 
that  belong  to  human  nature,  but  you  can  keep  them 
under  proper  restraint,  as  the  driver  keeps  the  fiery 
steeds  under  his  control.  We  must  keep  the  mastery 
over  the  lower  animal  nature  by  keeping  the  spiritual 
in  the  ascendency,  and  not  by  the  attempted  futile  ef¬ 
forts  of  self-mortification,  or  extinction  of  the  buoy¬ 
ancy  of  youth.  “What  doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require 
of  thee  but  to  deal  justly,  to  love  mercy  and  to  walk 
humbly  with  thy  God.”  Or  as  James  states  it:  “Pure 
religion  and  undefiled  before  our  God  and  Father  is 
this — to  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  afflic¬ 
tion,  and  to  keep  oneself  unspotted  from  the  world.” 

Drummond  says:  “I  do  not  think  that  Christ  ever 
said  simply  ‘Let  a  man  deny  himself.’  He  said,  ‘Let 
a  man  deny  himself  and  follow  ME and  in  following 
Him,  self-denial  becomes  inevitable  and  easy.  Christ 
never  meant  a  man  to  crush  his  nature.  God  meant  for 
us  to  keep  a  part  of  everything  that  He  put  into  us 
when  He  made  us — not  to  crush  and  dwarf  it,  but  to 
elevate  it  all  and  to  use  our  energies  with  higher  pur¬ 
poses  and  higher  motives.  These  desires  are  energies 
in  human  nature,  and  you  cannot  annihilate  them. 
Here  is  a  great  reservoir,  there  are  two  sluices;  and  if 


70  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

you  lift  the  one,  the  water  goes  away  down  into  noth¬ 
ing,  trickles  down  into  the  sea  and  is  lost;  if  you  lift 
the  other,  the  water  goes  out — passes  over  a  mill  wheel, 
and  does  useful  work.  Now  the  energies  of  a  man’s 
nature  can  be  guided  in  either  of  these  directions — in 
that  of  usefulness  or  of  uselessness,  but  they  cannot  be 
crushed;  that  method  is  futile.  You  may  crush  sin  by 
an  effort  for  a  week,  but  it  will  break  out  again  with 
more  force  than  ever.  You  can  only  give  the  man  a 
stronger  appetite  and  a  stronger  passion ;  give  him  a 
more  abundant  life  rather  than  a  dwarfed,  truncated, 
and  crushed  life.  And  that  is  what  religion  offers  a 
man.  It  does  not  say,  ‘I  am  come  to  crush  your  life 
and  dam  down  your  energies  and  all  your  desires  and 
passions,’  but  rather  ‘I  am  come  to  give  you  a  larger 
and  richer  life — I  am  not  come  to  destroy  anything  but 
to  fulfill.’  ” 

He  must  become  filled  with  the  spirit  to  make  the 
change  possible — it  is  being  born  anew ;  and  God  our 
Father  is  more  ready  to  grant  the  Holy  Spirit  to  every 
one  who  asks,  than  parents  are  to  give  good  gifts  to 
their  children,  and  this  assurance  is  for  every  one  and 
possible  to  all. 


CHAPTER  IX 


MEN  TEMPT  THEMSELVES 

MEN  become  their  own  tempters  when  they  seek 
out  places  of  sin  and  go  deliberately  in  the  way 
of  temptation,  even  though  they  may  not  always  have 
resolved  to  commit  evil;  for  they  presume  upon  their 
self-conceit — that  they  are  exceptions  to  the  moral 
weaklings,  and  that  they  can  stand  in  perfect  safety  in 
the  presence  of  temptation.  They  deliberately  disre¬ 
gard  the  warnings  of  the  Bible,  by  placing  themselves 
in  dangerous  places  and  thereby  tempt  themselves  to 
sin ;  or  as  Shakespeare  cogently  states  it : 

“Sometimes  we  are  devils  to  ourselves, 

When  we  will  tempt  the  frailty  of  our  powers, 
Presuming  on  their  changeful  potency.” 

When  men  approach  so  near  to  the  temptation,  then 
their  conscience  is  led  captive  and  silenced,  and  their 
will-power  is  enfeebled;  for  sound  judgment  is  para¬ 
lyzed.  They  cease  to  reason  as  free  moral  agents,  be¬ 
cause  they  have  allowed  themselves  to  become  mastered 
by  the  indulgence  of  sinful  desires  in  lusting  after  the 
forbidden  fruit. 

We  all  have  seen  the  helpless  struggles  of  the  fly, 
exhausting  itself  when  once  entrapped  in  the  spider’s 

71 


72  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

web  and  finally  overcome  by  the  secret  enemy  that  had 
enticed  it.  How  the  wary  trout  that  cautiously  hesi¬ 
tates  but  finally  is  emboldened  to  make  the  plunge  and 
grasp  the  tempting  bait,  struggles  in  vain  for  freedom 
from  the  snare.  Thus  it  ever  has  been  with  men,  who 
in  spite  of  the  mournful  experience  of  others,  have 
gone  in  the  way  of  temptation.  Far  “better  shun  the 
bait  than  struggle  in  the  snare”  as  Dryden  expressed 
it. 

It  is  not  from  ignorance  nor  accident  that  men 
stumble  into  the  pitfalls  of  vice,  for  they  see  the  lurid 
red  lights  burning  and  these  should  serve  as  a  warning 
instead  of  a  guidance  for  them  to  follow.  Every  pa¬ 
tron  of  vice  will  tell  you  that  “the  way  of  the  trans¬ 
gressor  is  hard,”  and  that  “fools  only  make  a  mock  at 
sin.” 

The  writer  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  warns  the  reader 
against  the  perilous  devices  of  the  strange  and  evil 
woman;  for  the  adulteress  and  harlot  destroy  by  their 
seductions.  “Can  a  man  take  fire  into  his  bosom,  and 
his  clothes  not  be  burned?  Or  can  one  walk  upon  hot 
coals,  and  his  feet  not  be  scorched?”  Still  “as  an  ox 
goeth  to  slaughter,”  thus  fools  go  to  their  shame  and 
destruction  when  led  captive  by  the  vile  woman, 
through  the  blandishments  that  conceal  the  inevitable 
consequences  of  evil  doing;  for  it  is  still  true  as  when 
the  First  Psalm  was  written :  “Blessed  is  the  man  that 
walketh  not  in  the  counsel  of  the  wicked,  nor  standeth 
m  the  way  of  sinners,  nor  sitteth  in  the  seat  of  scof¬ 
fers.  .  .  .  But  the  way  of  the  wicked  shall  perish.” 

Inasmuch  as  we  are  ashamed  of  the  deeds  of  the 
wicked  and  shudder  at  the  inevitable  fruits  of  vice, 


Men  Tempt  Themselves  73 

therefore  we  should  consistently  avoid  all  places  of 
temptation.  Stronger  men  than  we  have  gone  down, 
and  the  mere  presumption  as  to  our  superior  strength 
is  no  safeguard.  South  puts  the  caution  well:  “He 
who  has  no  mind  to  trade  with  the  devil,  should  be  so 
wise  as  to  keep  from  his  shop.” 

Had  David  kept  at  a  safe  distance,  then  his  life 
never  would  have  been  blackened  by  one  of  the  foul 
crimes  of  history.  Had  he  with  the  first  vision  and 
isuggestion  of  evil,  turned  suddenly  away  in  horror  at 
the  thought  of  immorality;  and,  like  Joseph,  said  with 
a  firm  resolve  “how  can  I  do  this  evil  and  sin  against 
my  God” — then  he  would  have  escaped  the  terrible 
shame  and  remorse  of  a  lifetime.  That  was  his  critical 
moment.  Then  he  might  have  exercised  his  moral  free¬ 
dom  of  choice,  and  saved  himself  from  the  awful  sin 
and  crime  that  besmirched  his  hitherto  unblemished 
character  and  led  to  his  eternal  disgrace. 

James  tells  in  unmistakable  words  the  philosophy 
and  secret  workings  of  the  power  of  temptation  when 
he  states  that  “each  man  is  tempted  when  he  is  drawn 
away  and  enticed  by  his  own  lust.  Then  the  lust,  when 
it  had  conceived,  beareth  sin ;  and  the  sin,  when  it  is 
full  grown,  bringeth  forth  death.” 

Temptations  in  multitudinous  forms  assail  every 
human  soul,  but  not  always  the  same  particular  ones ; 
for  many  escape  those  that  become  powerful  tempta¬ 
tions  to  others.  We  inherit  different  temperaments, 
we  are  born  with  certain  marked  dispositions  and  ten¬ 
dencies  which  are  in  striking  contrast  even  with  other 
members  of  the  same  family,  and  we  are  not  so  suscep¬ 
tible  to  similar  temptations  for  there  must  be  a  de- 


74  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

cided  response  within  us  to  the  bait  offered,  or  else  it 
becomes  no  enticement.  What  tempts  the  depraved 
moral  leper  is  repellent  and  loathsome  to  the  spiritual- 
minded  who  can  walk  safely  by  saloons  and  places  of 
vice,  whilst  others  would  be  strongly  tempted  to  enter. 
The  enticement  is  conditioned  upon  the  inner  state  of 
the  man  himself.  There  must  be  a  response  within  our¬ 
selves  to  the  inducement  offered,  and  that  depends 
wholly  upon  our  moral  tendency.  We  view  the  low 
dives  with  abhorrence;  but  strange  to  say,  they  seem  to 
offer  strong  inducements  that  tempt  some  men  to  leave 
the  home  of  their  devoted  wife  and  children ;  for  their 
souls  have  become  debased  by  cherishing  lascivious 
thoughts  and  indulgence  in  shameful  vice.  This 
strange  perversion  is  true  of  all  intemperate  and  im¬ 
moral  men  for  they  debased  themselves. 

We  must  not  try  to  shift  responsibility,  and  blame 
God  for  our  condition  when  once  enslaved  by  sin;  for 
God  tempts  no  man  to  evil.  He  has  endowed  us  with 
reason,  conscience,  and  power  of  will  to  resist  tempta¬ 
tion.  Besides,  he  counsels,  pleads,  warns,  and  holds 
forth  the  greatest  possible  inducements;  but  if  men 
turn  from  Him  and  follow  the  tempter  until  bound  by 
strong  habits,  they  must  blame  themselves  alone  for 
their  ruin.  They  knew  better  than  they  did,  and  they 
were  able  to  do  far  better  than  they  did,  had  they  done 
as  Christ  enjoined  them  to  do.  He  wanted  to  save 
them,  as  when  He  prayed  for  Peter  that  his  faith  might 
not  fail  him;  but  they  heeded  not  His  warnings  nor  His 
gracious  pleadings. 


CHAPTER  X 


NECESSITY  OF  SELF-DENIAL 

SELF-DENIAL  and  self-restraint  mean  self-mas¬ 
tery  ;  and  they  are  absolutely  necessary  for  our 
highest  good  as  individuals,  as  well  as  for  the  public 
welfare.  Unrestrained  self-indulgence  means  public 
anarchy  and  individual  slavery.  Every  slave  to  evil 
habits  is  a  living  witness  to  this  statement.  Unless 
man  denies  his  appetites,  he  brings  himself  into  bond¬ 
age.  This  is  an  all-important  truth  that  we  should 
recognize  and  keep  ever  before  us ;  for  the  tendency  of 
the  young  especially  is  to  dislike  restrictions ;  and  even 
some  older  ones  protest  against  the  restraints  imposed 
by  the  law,  for  they  say  that  it  interferes  with  our 
personal  liberty — and  we  are  in  a  free  country,  where 
a  man  can  do  as  he  pleases.  But  such  license  not  only 
would  lead  to  anarchy  and  subversion  of  all  human 
rights,  but  to  the  worst  kind  of  bondage  and  the  final 
loss  of  all  personal  freedom. 

Jesus  declared  that  “Whosoever  committeth  sin,  is 
the  servant  of  sin but  “ye  shall  know  the  truth  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free.”  Herein  we  have  a 
supreme  motive  for  seeking  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus 
— for  no  one  would  be  a  slave,  but  a  free  man.  I  know 
that  this  is  not  in  accord  with  what  some  men  think; 
for  they  object  to  Christianity  because  of  its  restraints. 

75 


76  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

and  find  fault  with  the  Ten  Commandments  because  of 
their  “Thou  shalt  not,”  for  they  would  not  be  bound 
by  any  law  but  would  be  free. 

In  my  years  of  personal  experience  and  extended  ob¬ 
servation  in  world-wide  travel,  I  never  met  nor  even 
heard  of  a  genuine  stalwart  Christian  who  regretted 
personal  sacrifice  he  had  been  obliged  to  make  because 
he  first  had  sought  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  right¬ 
eousness,  and  had  tried  to  live  a  Christian  life.  I  never 
met  nor  heard  of  one  who  lamented  the  fact  that  from 
his  youth  he  had  lived  a  moral  and  upright  life,  instead 
of  fulfilling  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  hating  his  neighbors 
and  watching  an  opportunity  to  defraud  them.  I 
never  met  nor  heard  of  a  father  or  mother  who  sor¬ 
rowed  because  their  children  were  faithful  followers  of 
Christ ;  but  there  are  many  thousands  of  broken¬ 
hearted  fathers  and  mothers  who  have  mourned  bitterly 
because  their  sons  and  daughters  had  cast  off  all  moral 
restraint,  and  wasted  their  lives  in  riotous  living. 

In  visiting  many  of  the  great  prisons  of  the  world, 
I  did  not  see  nor  hear  of  a  single  criminal  being  sent 
there  because  he  had  practised  the  teachings  of  Christ. 
I  witnessed  many  sad  and  mournful  scenes  among  the 
prisoners,  but  Christianity  did  not  furnish  a  single 
convict;  for  Christian  living  enslaves  no  one;  it  sends 
no  man,  woman,  or  child  behind  the  bars ;  it  binds  no 
one  with  chains,  but  brings  him  into  the  highest  and 
happiest  liberty.  In  that  vast  army  of  the  most  de¬ 
plorable  and  shameful  wrecks  of  humanity,  the  self- 
pauperized  and  degraded  drunkards  and  morally  de¬ 
praved  adulterers,  Christianity  did  not  furnish  a  single 
recruit ;  and  if  all  had  lived  faithful  Christian  lives, 


77 


Necessity  of  Self-Denial 

there  would  not  be  one  drunkard,  nor  one  bad  man  or 
woman  in  the  world.  Then  what  suffering,  what  pov¬ 
erty,  shame  and  remorse  would  have  been  escaped  by 
those  who  suffered  the  anguish  of  soul,  because  of  the 
terrible  slavery  of  sin?  When  they  threw  off  restraint, 
they  lost  their  freedom,  and  no  one  envies  them  their 
portion.  We  cannot  imagine  a  sadder  bondage,  for 
they  have  been  shorn  of  their  boasted  powers  and  rights 
of  personal  liberty  to  do  as  they  pleased  in  indulging 
their  appetites.  Had  an  enemy  enslaved  them  with 
such  a  horrible  bondage,  he  would  be  execrated  by  all 
as  an  inhuman  monster.  Who  ever  wronged  the  home, 
the  wife,  mother,  and  children  so  much  as  do  the  un¬ 
faithful  and  sin-depraved  husband,  father,  and  son? 
Were  a  stranger  to  commit  such  an  outrageous  wrong 
against  one  of  them,  that  same  enemy  of  his  own  fam¬ 
ily  would  curse  and  destroy  him.  But  the  fact  that 
he  is  the  husband  and  father  or  son,  does  not  exempt 
him  from  responsibility  in  bringing  poverty,  sorrow, 
and  shame  upon  members  of  his  own  household  whom 
he  was  morally  bound  by  every  obligation  to  honor  and 
protect.  He  has  thrown  off  all  moral  restraint;  but 
no  one  admires  such  a  weakling,  nor  thinks  that  he  is 
free. 

John  B.  Gough,  the  famous  temperance  lecturer, 
told  me  how  he  had  been  a  slave  to  drink,  and  the  ter¬ 
rible  struggle  he  had  when  he  had  resolved  to  reform; 
for  he  had  for  years  lost  his  freedom,  and  was  under 
the  slavery  of  drink.  But  with  an  indomitable  will, 
and  by  looking  ever  to  Jesus  as  the  author  and  finisher 
of  his  faith,  and  clinging  to  him  as  his  Savior, — he 
triumphed.  When  he  recovered  the  liberty  that  he  had 


78  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

surrendered,  he  never  spoke  of  his  sacrifice  because  he 
practised  denial  to  attain  to  self-mastery,  but  always 
thanked  God  for  the  highest  and  most  precious  liberty 
that  he  had  been  able  to  enjoy  in  Christian  experience 
and  living.  Do  not  be  tempted  to  defer  or  to  decline 
fellowship  with  Christ  and  His  church  under  the  mis¬ 
apprehension  that  it  means  a  sort  of  asceticism  or  a 
synonymn  for  mere  self-abnegation;  and  a  belief,  or 
affectation  of  belief,  that  the  buoyant  spirit  must  be 
crushed,  and  that  all  amusements  or  games  (however 
innocent  and  beautiful)  must  be  abandoned  as  incom¬ 
patible  with  Christian  character. 

As  an  antidote  to  such  an  erroneous  impression,  I 
would  call  your  attention  to  the  life  of  one  of  the  most 
keenly  intellectual,  moral  and  deeply  spiritual  leaders 
among  thinkers  and  students  in  universities.  His  name 
has  become  a  synonymn  of  abiding  faith  and  fellowship 
with  Jesus,  so  that  you  may  see  something  of  the  daily 
joys  and  spirit  of  a  stalwart  Christian  whose  highest 
life  was  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  I  refer  to  Henry 
Drummond,  of  whom  his  intimate  friend,  Dr.  George 
Adam  Smith  wrote  of  this  modern  and  real  saint,  that 
he  was  a  graceful  and  wTell-dressed  gentleman,  tall  and 
lithe,  with  a  swing  in  his  walk  and  a  brightness  in 
his  face,  who  seemed  to  carry  no  cares,  and  to  know 
neither  presumption  nor  timidity.  You  spoke  and 
found  him  keen  for  a  hundred  interests.  He  fished,  he 
shot,  he  skated  as  few  can,  he  played  cricket  and  he 
could  go  any  distance  to  see  a  fire  or  a  football  match. 
He  had  a  new  story,  a  new  puzzle,  or  a  new  joke  every 
time  you  met  him.  If  it  was  a  child’s  party,  they  clam¬ 
ored  for  his  sleight-of-hand.”  That  is  a  true  portrait 


79 


Necessity  of  Self-Denial 

of  this  brilliant,  consecrated  man  of  God,  with  a  scien¬ 
tific  mind,  hating  sin,  and  loving  righteousness.  He 
had  no  sympathy  with  pious,  hypocritical  cant,  for 
he  was  a  sincere  and  manly  Christian.  Does  not  that 
life  attract  you  and  make  you  see  that  it  is  possible 
for  you  to  get  all  the  best  things  out  of  this  life  whilst 
maintaining  a  Christian  character  and  living  in  the 
love  of  God?  Read  his  booklet  on  Love ,  the  Greatest 
Thing  in  the  World ,  and  you  will  be  convinced.  Every¬ 
where  he  became  a  centre  of  attraction  for  Christ  by 
his  buoyant  spirit,  loving  heart,  brilliant  mind,  and 
beautiful  Christian  character.  There  was  no  selfish¬ 
ness  ;  he  was  interested  in  the  highest  interests  of  all 
men. 

Drummond,  like  every  thoughtful  Christian,  realized 
that  godliness  was  profitable  unto  all  things,  having  the 
promise  of  the  “life  that  now  is  and  of  the  life  that  is  to 
come.”  That  ought  to  be  sufficient  commendation  for 
its  recommendation  and  practice;  for  we  are  living  in 
a  practical  age  when  business  men  are  asking  “What 
is  it  worth?  Will  the  investment  or  the  venture  pay? 
Is  it  worth  while?”  These  are  familiar  questions  that 
we  frequently  hear;  but  some  men  seem  to  think  that 
our  religion  has  no  special,  or  at  least  important,  prac¬ 
tical  worth  during  life  until  nearly  the  close.  A  little 
reflection  will  show  that  it  is  a  conserver  of  health,  hap¬ 
piness,  peace  of  mind  and  conscience,  character,  self- 
respect,  money,  happy  and  honorable  homes,  with  all 
that  makes  life  worth  the  living.  The  Christian  is  not 
commanded  to  abstain  from  anything  that  would  min¬ 
ister  to  his  highest  good ;  and  it  is  a  gross  delusion  to 
suppose  that  the  wicked  enjoy  the  best  things  of  this 


80  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

life,  just  as  though  our  heavenly  Father  were  less  con¬ 
siderate  for  His  faithful  children  than  Satan  is  for  his 
servants.  God  declares  that  every  good  and  every 
perfect  gift  comes  from  Him,  and  that  He  giveth  us 
richly,  all  things  to  enjoy.  And  “no  good  thing  will 
he  withhold  from  them  that  walk  uprightly.” 

The  restrictions  are  all  for  our  highest  good,  and 
this  can  be  attained  only  by  right  living.  We  cannot 
enjoy  good  health  unless  we  conform  to  certain  require¬ 
ments  ;  and  the  health  physician  publishes  a  number 
of  don’ts  at  stated  periods.  No  one  objects  for  we 
have  learned  that  they  are  necessary  for  good  health ; 
and  men  will  do  anything  to  recover  health  and  prolong 
life,  however  careless  they  once  may  have  been;  for 
they  begin  to  realize  the  worth  of  them.  The  state  has 
its  prohibitions  and  all  must  respect  them;  and  noth¬ 
ing  is  right  for  the  non-church-goer  that  is  forbidden 
the  church  member.  We  should  not  think  merely  of 
the  restrictions  as  though  there  were  no  positive  bless¬ 
ings  that  we  were  permitted  to  enjoy;  for  Eve  made  a 
grievous  mistake  in  placing  her  emphasis  on  the  former. 
It  is  because  of  the  wisdom  and  great  love  of  the  mother 
for  her  child  that  she  forbids  whatever  would  endanger 
the  greatest  welfare  of  that  child.  Often  we  murmured 
when  our  parents  denied  us  something  that  we  longed 
for;  but  later  in  life  we  felt  grateful  because  they  did 
what  was  best ;  and  the  same  is  true  in  reference  to  the 
ways  of  our  all-wise  and  all-loving  heavenly  Father 
who  often  withholds  the  particular  thing  for  which  we 
plead,  in  order  that  he  may  give  us  something  better. 
Many  a  child  has  been  spoiled  by  indulgence. 

So  far  as  Christian  living  imposes  certain  duties  to- 


81 


Necessity  of  Self-Denial 

ward  our  fellow  man,  we  all  know  that  love  is  funda¬ 
mental  in  Christianity ;  not  only  in  its  origin  but  in 
its  propagation.  It  was  because  God  so  loved  human¬ 
ity  that  He  sent  His  own  Son  to  save  the  world;  and 
it  was  the  love  of  Christ  that  constrained  all  His  fol¬ 
lowers  to  spread  the  Gospel  of  good  news ;  for  love  al¬ 
ways  wants -to  do  good  unto  others,  as  every  mother 
knows.  There  is  also  a  law  of  rich  compensation  in 
the  activity  of  love.  The  miser  gets  the  least  returns 
from  his  money ;  and  in  like  manner  the  selfish  soul  gets 
the  least  out  of  this  life.  God  gives  no  encouragement 
nor  reward  for  selfishness;  but  a  life  of  loving  service 
finds  the  greatest  satisfaction. 


CHAPTER  XI 


TEMPTATIONS  TO  DISHONESTY 

PARENTS  should  be  impressed  with  their  rare  op¬ 
portunity  and  corresponding  responsibility  to 
teach  their  children  the  importance  of  little  things — 
the  bricks  make  the  building  and  the  units  make  the  mil¬ 
lions.  The  young  tell  what  they  would  do  if  they  were 
great  and  rich,  but  they  overlook  the  way  to  their 
greatness.  They  are  not  willing  to  economize  time  and 
money,  and  give  careful  attention  to  detail  even  in  the 
smallest  things,  and  by  which  men  become  great.  If 
they  are  not  faithful  in  little  things,  they  could  not 
be  entrusted  with  great  things.  When  young  they  are 
growing  tendencies  and  developing  moral  forces  that 
will  determine  their  character  and  possibilities  for  fu¬ 
ture  usefulness  and  efficiency,  and  make  them  the  men 
that  they  are  to  be. 

The  repeated  prevarications,  the  little  acts  of  dis¬ 
honesty  that  were  carefully  concealed  by  being  oft  re¬ 
peated,  grew  into  the  greater  ones.  It  was  the  trifling 
with  conscience  and  better  judgment,  and  the  first 
moral  indiscretion,  that  were  the  beginning  of  the  de¬ 
plorable  end — just  as  the  first  social  glass  was  taken 
without  any  serious  thought  as  to  its  consequences. 
We  must  not  overlook  the  tendencies  of  our  deeds,  nor 
despise  the  day  of  small  things ;  but  make  the  most  of 

82 


Temptations  to  Dishonesty  83 

life,  however  humble  our  station  may  be.  Teach  the 
children  that  they  should  improve  the  opportunities 
that  they  have  for  doing*  good,  though  limited — they 
can  speak  the  kind  word  to  the  few;  they  can  endeavor 
to  influence  their  associates  for  good ;  and  they  can 
give  them  an  example,  as  well  as  their  own  households. 
We  must  not  restrict  the  meaning  of  temptation  to  cer¬ 
tain  unmentionable  and  loathsome  vices — the  shameful 
sins  of  the  flesh — for  many  who  are  free  from  these, 
leading  respectable  lives  and  occupying  positions  of 
honor  whether  in  the  Church  or  out  of  it — they  know, 
who  have  fallen  into  other  temptations  to  sin  and  have 
been  enslaved  by  them.  Pope  in  his  Essay  on  Man 
wrote  forcibly  and  truly  that  “An  honest  man  is  the 
noblest  work  of  God.”  We  understand  the  use  of  that 
word  honest  in  the  broadest  and  most  comprehensive 
sense.  Jesus  expressed  the  truth  when  he  said  “Render 
therefore  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar’s,  and 
unto  God  the  things  that  are  God’s.”  In  spite  of  this 
moral  standard  we  find  that  it  is  utterly  disregarded, 
even  in  high  places.  Political  graft,  or  translated  into 
plain  English,  wholesale  robbery  of  the  public  treas¬ 
ury  by  representative  officials,  whether  employed  by 
state,  county  or  city  has  been  a  common  crime  and 
characteristic  scandal  of  our  country.  They  would  de¬ 
spise  the  pickpocket  or  ordinary  burglar,  but  unfor¬ 
tunately  they  seem  not  to  despise  themselves  for  steal¬ 
ing  from  the  public  treasury.  They  would  put  other 
thieves  behind  the  bars  whilst  refusing  to  take  their 
place  with  them.  They  are  not  noble  men,  for  they 
are  neither  honest  with  God  nor  with  the  state.  All 
the  thieves  are  not  in  jail;  for  an  astounding  discovery 


84  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

was  made  several  years  ago  when  several  different 
states  made  a  careful  examination  of  the  scales  and 
measures  used  in  thousands  of  grocery  stores,  and  found 
that  nearly  fifty  per  cent  of  them  were  fraudulent. 
It  was  a  sad  revelation  as  to  the  number  of  thieves  that 
never  had  been  even  suspected  of  dishonesty.  I  saw 
thousands  of  the  scales  that  had  been  used  by  grocers 
to  defraud  the  customers  by  giving  them  short  weight 
— and  the  same  was  true  of  the  measures  employed, 
and  through  which  more  than  one  hundred  million  dol¬ 
lars  were  lost  annually  by  the  consumers.  They  were 
not  troubled  by  the  denunciation  of  the  Almighty  that 
“A  false  balance  is  an  abomination  to  Jehovah.”  The 
Prophet  Amos  utters  divine  judgment  against  the  men 
who  make  the  measures  small  and  deal  with  balances  of 
deceit.  No  man  can  expect  God’s  blessing  upon  such 
dishonest  practices.  In  many  cases  the  grocers  did  not 
know  that  the  measures  were  under  size,  as  they  testi¬ 
fied. 

Men  are  continually  selling  themselves  for  money, 
as  though  it  were  the  summum  bonum — the  chief  end 
of  life.  The  prevalence  of  dishonesty ;  the  selling  of 
public  interests,  and  thereby  robbing  the  treasury  and 
the  taking  of  graft  by  prominent  officials,  is  the  com¬ 
mon  scandal  that  every  right-minded  citizen  deplores. 
Many  are  notorious  for  their  dishonesty,  and  never 
pay  an  honest  debt  if  they  can  escape  it.  Although 
they  are  cultured  and  refined  of  manners,  they  have 
no  scruples  of  conscience  in  matters  of  dollars  and 
cents.  Jesus  would  not  turn  stones  into  bread  even  to 
satisfy  His  hunger;  but  they  will  do  anything  that 
seems  safe  to  convert  worthless  stock  and  false  prom- 


Temptations  to  Dishonesty  85 

ises  into  money.  Occasionally  they  go  too  far,  and  are 
sent  to  prison  for  obtaining  money  under  false  pre¬ 
tence.  Perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to  refer  to 
them  as  examples  of  total  depravity,  and  place  them  in 
the  class  designated  by  sociologists,  as  moral  degener¬ 
ates — instead  of  the  subjects  of  temptation.  They  will 
misrepresent,  counterfeit,  and  adulterate  any  food, 
whatever  its  effect  upon  the  consumer — maybe  in  order 
to  get  money.  No  wonder  that  Paul  declared  that  “the 
love  of  money  is  a  root  of  all  kinds  of  evil,”  for  men 
and  women  have  sold  their  virtue  and  all  that  is  best 
and  noblest  in  us,  for  money. 

When  we  speak  of  temptation  to  sin,  we  must  not 
restrict  it  merely  to  the  vices  that  are  associated  with 
our  physical  natures,  and  overlook  the  many  grievous 
sins  that  had  their  genesis  in  man’s  mental  state.  I  re¬ 
fer  to  that  long  catalogue  of  wickedness  that  has 
cursed  humanity,  and  which  has  been  responsible  for 
the  most  lurid  and  shocking  pages  of  history.  Not 
only  was  the  famous  gunpowder  plot  of  England 
hatched  in  the  mind  of  man,  but  all  the  horrible  con¬ 
spiracies,  the  murders  and  wholesale  massacres  of  his¬ 
tory,  as  well  as  religious  wars ;  and  the  dreadful  pun¬ 
ishment  that  noble  men  and  women  suffered  in  prisons 
and  dungeons,  and  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy ; 
for  their  only  crime  was  in  claiming  liberty  to  be  true 
to  the  divine-given  inalienable  right  to  follow  the  dic¬ 
tates  of  their  own  enlightened  conscience. 

It  is  a  sad  fact  that  man  has  committed  the  greatest 
wrong  against  himself.  An  enemy  can  impugn  his  mo¬ 
tives,  malign  his  character,  rob  him  of  his  money  by 
deceit,  and  even  kill  the  body ;  but  the  man  may  choose 


86  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

low  ideals  and  base  purposes,  debase  his  moral  char¬ 
acter  and  destroy  not  only  his  body  but  himself,  by  his 
wicked  deeds.  We  need  not  illustrate,  for  all  are  fa¬ 
miliar  with  well-known  examples.  But  I  would  correct 
an  erroneous  impression  that  we  often  hear  expressed, 
when  it  is  said  of  some  modern  prodigal  son  that  “he 
was  his  own  worst  enemy,  and  only  did  the  greatest 
harm  to  himself,”  for  he  did  great  harm  to  others  also 
- — the  innocent  members  of  his  family  become  involved 
in  his  wasted  life;  for  he  not  only  pauperizes  them,  but 
leaves  them  the  legacy  of  sorrow,  and  the  memory  of 
his  shame.  It  is  ever  true  that  no  man  liveth  unto  him¬ 
self  nor  dieth  unto  himself,  for  no  one  is  isolated,  but 
related  to  others. 

It  is  evident  that  the  chief  aim,  purpose  and  meaning 
of  life,  vary  with  different  individuals.  Not  only  do 
their  circumstances  differ  but  also  their  conceptions  as 
to  the  meaning  of  life.  Their  ideals  and  motives  are  not 
the  same,  but  differ  widely.  The  child  cares  most  for 
its  playthings,  but  when  it  becomes  a  man,  it  puts  away 
its  childish  things.  Many  grown  people,  however,  seem 
to  be  as  mistaken  as  the  child  with  reference  to  things 
most  to  be  desired,  and  most  conducive  to  a  life  of  com¬ 
plete  satisfaction.  As  an  illustration:  I  recently  met 
in  a  bank  the  driver  of  an  express  company’s  wagon 
just  as  he  was  delivering  to  the  cashier  a  large  package 
of  United  States  notes.  In  reply  to  my  question,  he 
said :  “If  I  had  all  that  money,  I  would  never  do  a 
stroke  of  work,  but  would  enjoy  myself.”  I  replied: 
c A  ou  do  not  mean  that ;  for  then  you  would  lead  a 
most  unworthy,  selfish  and  unsatisfactory  life,  and  in 
the  end  you  would  become  disgusted  with  life  and  die 


Temptations  to  Dishonesty  87 

long  before  your  time.  No  life  brings  such  rich  and 
happy  returns  as  the  life  of  faithful  service.”  He 
changed  his  tone,  and  acknowledged  that  I  was  right — 
and  that  he  would  “stick  to  his  honest  job.” 

Every  man  should  endeavor  to  make  the  most  of  life 
by  developing  himself  into  the  most  efficient  and  best 
manhood.  This  can  come  only  from  the  strenuous  ex¬ 
ercise  of  the  best  powers  within  us,  and  by  doing  good 
unto  others  according  to  our  opportunities ;  for  the 
measure  of  our  responsibility  is  determined  by  our  op¬ 
portunity.  No  man  need  fail  in  his  faithful  endeavor, 
though  he  may  not  succeed  in  the  attainment  of  all  for 
which  he  strives ;  but  he  forms  his  own  character  which 
is  the  real  man  and  stamps  him  for  what  he  is  in  his 
own  consciousness  and  as  God  sees  and  knows  him — 
however  he  may  be  able  to  disguise  himself  as  an  actor 
at  times,  so  as  not  to  betray  himself  to  the  public. 


CHAPTER  XII 


YOU  CANNOT  ESCAPE  FROM  YOURSELF 

OU  and  I  are  ourselves,  however  we  may  appear 
“■*  1°  others  and  wherever  we  may  be;  and  we  are 

not  some  one  else.  If  we  take  the  night  train  in  Syra¬ 
cuse  and  sleep  until  we  reach  New  York  in  the  morn- 
ing,  the  porter  need  not  tell  us  who  we  are  when  he 
awakens  us,  for  we  know  that  we  are  ourselves.  Had 
an  accident  occurred  and  suddenly  sent  us  into  the 
unseen  and  eternal  world,  we  would  have  awakened 
there  instead  and  it  would  not  have  been  necessarv 
for  any  one  to  inform  us  of  our  identity;  for  we  still 
would  have  been  ourselves,  whether  on  earth  or  in 
heaven. 

In  view  of  this  fact,  I  need  not  try  to  persuade  you 
that  every  man  should  do  everything*  in  his  power  to 
make  himself  one  of  the  best  and  most  self-respecting 
men  possible,  for  he  never  can  escape  from  himself. 
Man  may  ignore  and  ostracize  his  disagreeable  neigh¬ 
bors  and  the  undesirable  citizens  with  whom  he  would 
be  ashamed  to  associate,  and  he  may  be  very  choice 
in  the  selection  of  his  companions ;  but  there  is  one 
exception  in  this  process  of  elimination,  and  it  is  the 
most  intimate  and  vital  one,  for  the  man  cannot  get 
away  from  himself.  He  may  refuse  to  recognize  his 
next  door  neighbor  and  close  the  door  against  him, 

88 


89 


You  Cannot  Escape  from  Yourself 

but  he  cannot  get  away  from  himself — with  that  man 
he  must  associate  hourly.  He  must  meditate  with 
him,  eat  and  drink  with  him,  sleep  with  him,  live  and 
grow  old  with  him,  die  with  him  and  be  at  one  with 
him  throughout  eternity.  In  view  of  this  fact,  we 
should  examine  ourselves  with  the  earnest  desire  to  see 
in  what  relation  we  are  living  with  God  and  with  hu¬ 
manity,  and  know  what  kind  of  man  we  are  making  of 
ourselves.  Are  you  growing  to  be  the  best  possible 
companion  for  an  eternal  fellowship;  or  are  you 
ashamed  of  yourself  and  are  you  making  yourself  in¬ 
tolerable  and  your  own  worst  enemy?  Who  would  live 
with  the  vile  libertine,  the  profane  blasphemer,  the 
drunkard,  thief  or  murderer?  But  all  these  fallen 
men  and  women  must  live  in  the  most  intimate  and  in¬ 
separable  relationship  with  themselves. 

This  was  the  terrible  thought  that  oppressed  me 
when  I  visited  the  great  prisons, — passed  through  the 
corridors,  and  on  either  side  saw  the  prisoners  in  their 
cells.  I  never  can  escape  the  impressions  made  upon 
me  when  on  several  occasions  I  spoke  to  an  audience 
of  one  thousand  men ;  and  afterwards  with  the  super¬ 
intendent,  walked  through  the  long  corridors  that  we 
might  see  some  of  the  effect  made  upon  the  unfortunate 
inmates.  We  saw  many  reading  the  Bible  and  others 
kneeling  alone  in  prayer;  for  there  is  hope  for  the  pris¬ 
oner  who  turns  to  God  with  his  whole  heart.  In  the 
large  prison  at  San  Luis  Potosi,  I  saw  on  a  Sunday 
afternoon  among  the  vast  number  of  prisoners,  some 
forty  men  who  had  committed  murder.  They  were  all 
in  the  open  square  with  the  sky  overhead,  and  they 
mingled  freely  together,  for  the  high  walls  and  strong 


90  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

guards  at  the  main  gate,  made  all  escape  impossible. 
They  wore  no  labels  nor  distinctive  dress  to  indicate 
the  nature  of  the  crime  they  had  committed,  but  each 
one  knew,  and  at  the  appointed  signal,  he  returned 
to  his  own  cell.  The  murderer  went  to  his  own  place, 
for  the  blood  of  the  murdered  man  cried  out  against 
him,  and  the  mental  image  of  the  dreadful  crime  was 
ever  before  his  eyes,  and  he  saw  the  blood  stains  upon 
his  soul.  He  could  no  more  remove  them  than  he 
could  blot  out  his  memory.  There  was  no  transfer¬ 
ence  of  his  guilt  or  moral  consciousness — either  in  this 
life  or  the  life  to  come.  He  may  have  evaded  the  law 
and  escaped  the  detective  for  a  time  by  flight  or  by  con¬ 
cealing  himself  from  the  public,  but  he  never  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  escaping  from  his  crime,  for  his  sin  found 
him  out  immediately  after  he  had  committed  it.  Our 
personal  identity  remains  unaffected  by  any  outward 
disguise  or  changed  location.  It  was  an  awful  spec¬ 
tacle  as  I  contemplated  the  mental  state  of  the  guilty 
murderer  alone  with  himself.  What  a  horrible  world 
he  was  living  in — within  the  realm  of  his  own  thoughts. 
He  may  have  suffered  in  the  depths  of  his  soul,  all  that 
is  expressed  in  the  brief  sentence  “Myself  am  hell !” 

We  are  ourselves  and  not  some  one  else.  Our  real 
self  does  not  consist  in  the  bodily  appearance,  but 
in  that  hidden  and  inner  man  of  the  heart.  We  are 
the  aggregation  or  result  of  all  our  antecedents,  for 
each  day  brings  additional  experiences,  impressions, 
and  deeds,  so  that  we  are  not  just  the  same  that  we 
were  yesterday,  though  the  outward  appearance  may 
seem  to  be  the  same.  I  o-day  as  we  gaze  upon  the  royal 
mummies  of  Egypt,  and  especially  upon  the  Pharaoh 


91 


You  Cannot  Escape  from  Yourself 

of  the  Exodus — by  the  exercise  of  our  imagination  and 
with  the  background  of  history,  we  easily  can  visualize 
that  memorable  scene  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Exodus, 
when  Moses  with  Aaron,  in  obedience  to  the  command 
of  God,  appeared  before  the  ruler  of  Egypt  and  ap¬ 
pealed  to  him  to  allow  the  children  of  Israel  to  go. 
There  lay  before  me  the  mortal  remains  of  that  fa¬ 
mous  character  of  history.  I  saw  the  same  eyes  that 
once  were  turned  toward  Moses  and  Aaron;  and  the 
same  lips  that  once  moved  as  the  haughty  monarch 
replied  thus  to  their  entreaty:  “Who  is  Jehovah,  that 
I  should  hearken  unto  his  voice  to  let  Israel  go?  I 
know  not  Jehovah;  and  moreover,  I  will  not  let  Israel 
go.”  I  had  vivid  and  realistic  impressions  of  that  mo¬ 
mentous  event  in  Israel’s  history,  as  I  gazed  intently 
upon  that  rigid  face  and  the  fixed  lips  that  once  spoke 
the  haughty  words  that  would  set  at  naught  the  will 
of  the  Almighty.  And  yet  that  embalmed  body  was 
not  the  Pharaoh  himself.  He  who  once  dwelt  in  that 
tenement  of  clay  and  who  decided  against  the  appeal  of 
God’s  messengers,  long  since  had  gone  out  into  the 
spirit  world ;  and  that  dried  body  that  had  lain  in  the 
tomb  for  more  than  thirty  centuries,  no  longer  was  any 
vital  part  of  him.  That  Pharaoh  who  once  ruled  and 
moved  and  had  his  being  in  Egypt,  was  still  the  same 
man  in  his  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  being  al¬ 
though  unseen ;  for  he  still  continues  inseparable  from 
his  works  during  his  earthly  career,  and  conscience 
ever  keeps  him  with  his  real  self ;  for  character  is  the 
man,  and  there  is  no  escape  from  this  abiding  reality. 

Nothing  is  more  real  and  imperative  than  conscience. 
It  is  as  universal  as  humanity ;  and  has  exercised  its 


92  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

dominant  power  over  all  races  of  mankind,  the  most 
uncivilized  as  well  as  the  most  cultured  and  from  the 
earliest  dawn  of  history.  It  is  an  innate  and  an  ever 
present  witness  that  God  is  near  and  that  He  has  some¬ 
thing  to  do  with  us,  that  we  cannot  escape  Him;  for 
He  exercises  authority  over  us  through  our  moral 
consciousness,  and  there  is  no  escape  by  flight  from 
this  ineradicable  witness  of  self-condemnation.  Cicero 
declared  that  “Conscience  pervades  all  minds,  and  this 
law  cannot  be  annulled  or  overruled ;  no  Senate  can 
loose  us  from  it;  no  jurist  can  explain  it  away.  It 
is  not  one  law  at  Athens,  and  another  at  Rome ;  one 
at  present  and  another  hereafter;  but  one  law  per¬ 
petual  and  immutable.”  The  exceptions  may  be  ac¬ 
counted  for,  and  they  are  not  so  radical  as  some  have 
supposed,  although  the  conscience  has  at  times  been 
shaped  and  warped  into  strange  acts  and  crimes  by 
religious  education. 

In  years  of  travel  around  the  world,  we  find  the 
most  diverse  people — differing  greatly  in  their  intellec¬ 
tual,  social,  and  religious  condition;  yet  the  very  low¬ 
est  of  them  are  under  the  dominion  of  conscience.  I 
am  fully  aware  that  there  are  certain  practices  among 
certain  tribes  that  are  shocking  to  our  ideas  of  mo¬ 
rality  and  which  would  be  criminal  in  any  country 
where  Christian  civilization  prevails ;  but  those  start¬ 
ling  vagaries  of  immorality  are  due  to  their  religious 
customs,  inherited  from  the  past. — In  other  words,  the 
vulgar  ignorance  and  lack  of  civilizing  influences ;  for 
conscience  does  not  furnish  knowledge  and  education, 
but  approves  or  disapproves  the  correctness  of  our 
motives  and  conduct. 


93 


You  Cannot  Escape  from  Yourself 

Whilst  the  moral  faculty  is  innate  and  not  merely 
the  result  of  education,  it  will  have  its  influence  upon 
certain  expressions  of  conscience.  Many  of  these  have 
been  furnished  by  the  extravagance  of  the  various  sys¬ 
tems  of  asceticism  that  have  prevailed  at  times  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church.  In  the  famous  mon¬ 
astery  of  Troitska  near  Moscow,  I  visited  the  subter¬ 
ranean  cells  in  which  deluded  Christian  men  once  had 
themselves  immured — walled  in  from  the  world,  from 
the  sunshine  of  heaven,  to  spend  their  shortened  selfish 
life  in  these  damp-dark  cells  and  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth,  because  they  became  persuaded  that  God  willed 
it;  and  thereby,  alone,  they  could  save  their  own  soul, 
though  the  rest  of  the  world  might  perish.  It  was 
a  morbid  self-delusion — an  abnormal  mental  state, 
though  the  fanatic  was  conscientious.  A  wiser  and 
more  sane  man  than  the  head  of  that  monastery,  in 
the  person  of  the  Czar,  became  shocked  at  the  hor¬ 
rible  delusion  of  self-immolation  in  the  name  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  and  he  ordered  every  monk  to  be  removed  and 
that  the  cells  should  be  cleared.  That  horrible  de¬ 
lusion  was  the  result  of  a  morbid  mind  being  allowed 
to  misinterpret  the  Gospels  of  Christ,  and  the  Church 
should  not  have  sanctioned  it. 

We  have  another  illustration  of  a  thief  who  stole 
meat  on  Holy  Thursday,  but  whose  religious  scruples 
would  not  allow  him  to  eat  it  on  Good  Friday,  althougn 
he  was  hungry.  These  are  only  perversions,  and  show 
the  importance  of  testing  and  adjusting  our  conscience 
in  accordance  with  the  infallible  standard  of  God’s 
word;  for  even  the  zealous  Paul  made  the  dreadful 
mistake  in  thinking  that  he  was  doing  God’s  service 


94  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

when  persecuting  Christian  men  and  women.  The  mis¬ 
take  has  been  repeated  too  frequently. 

That  Divine  Word  is  the  only  rule  and  guide  for  our 
faith  and  practice,  and  not  our  mental  hallucinations, 
feelings,  prejudices,  nor  hate.  This  does  not  mean  to 
limit  the  power  of  conscience,  for  it  is  God’s  own  rep¬ 
resentative  judge  in  man,  and  that  verdict  is  final. 
No  supreme  court  on  earth  can  reverse  it.  No  jury 
can  affect  it,  whether  they  render  a  verdict  of  guilty 
or  not  guilty;  for  if  conscience  condemns  the  man  as 
guilty,  they  cannot  acquit  a  guilty  conscience.  The 
result  of  a  law-suit  may  depend  on  the  witnesses,  or  on 
the  superior  skill  of  the  lawyer  on  the  winning  side; 
but  the  guilty  man,  though  acquitted  by  the  jury, 
knows  that  he  is  not  innocent;  for  conscience  cannot 
be  bribed  nor  argued  out  of  court  by  the  ablest  law¬ 
yer.  It  is  the  supreme  judge  from  which  no  appeal 
can  be  taken;  for  it  speaks  with  final  authority,  and 
refuses  to  be  silenced  though  it  denounces  us  for  wrong 
doing.  The  strong  may  threaten  and  silence  the  ac¬ 
cuser,  and  nations  may  censor  the  press  in  time  of  war 
and  suppress  unfavorable  facts ;  but  there  is  no  human 
power  nor  national  authority  that  can  exercise  cen¬ 
sorship  over  the  conscience.  We  have  abundant  evi¬ 
dence  in  the  conscience  money  returned  to  the  Treas¬ 
ury  Department ;  and  in  the  many  unknown  criminals 
who,  driven  by  conscience,  voluntarily  confessed  their 
guilt,  and  surrendered  themselves  to  the  penalty  of  the 
law.  Many  have  been  filled  with  remorse  and  given 
up  their  ill-gotten  gain — who,  like  Judas,  bargained 
for  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  ;  but  later  in  agony  of 
conscience,  returned  the  accursed  graft  with  the  la- 


You  Cannot  Escape  fro7U  Yourself  95 

mentable  confession :  “I  have  sinned  in  that  I  have 
betrayed  innocent  blood.”  Shakespeare  knew  the  po¬ 
tency  of  this  invisible  judge,  when  he  wrote:  “Con¬ 
science  doth  make  cowards  of  us  all.”  Men,  like  Phar¬ 
aoh  and  Herod,  may  dull  their  conscience  by  sin ;  but 
in  case  of  the  desperately  hardened  evil-doer,  there 
are  times  when  it  stings  them  like  a  scorpion ;  for,  as 
South  says:  “No  man  ever  offended  his  own  con¬ 
science,  but  first  or  last  it  was  revenged  upon  him  for 
it.” 

Conscience  is  the  safeguard  for  every  man,  as  well 
as  for  the  state.  Without  it  anarchy  and  pandemo¬ 
nium  would  reign,  life  would  be  intolerable,  and  man 
would  destroy  himself.  It  is  not  only  a  powerful  de¬ 
terrent  against  evil,  but  it  makes  man  an  ally  with  the 
Almighty;  and  with  heroic  courage  of  conviction,  he 
stands  by  his  moral  convictions  in  defiance  of  all 
threats  and  opposition.  It  enabled  Peter  and  the 
Apostles  to  stand  firm  and  preach  Christ  though  im¬ 
prisoned  and  warned  by  the  high  priests  and  the  lead¬ 
ers  of  the  Sadducees ;  and  in  reply  to  the  threats  of 
their  enemies  in  authority — they  returned  the  bold 
challenge  “We  must  obey  God  rather  than  man.”  It 
was  the  irresistible  potency  of  the  conscience  as  God’s 
deputy  and  searchlight  in  the  soul  that  made  them  feel 
that  they  were  the  messengers  commissioned  of  God ; 
and  they  went  forth  like  immortals,  with  invincible 
faith,  preaching  the  Christ  as  the  world’s  only  Sa¬ 
vior. 

Our  moral  consciousness  is  supremely  personal,  and 
either  approves  the  moral  character  of  our  conduct  or 
lashes  us  with  the  retribution  of  remorse,  for  conscience 


96  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

passes  judgment  upon  the  quality  of  our  actions  and 
our  moral  obligations.  Whilst  the  universal  voice  oi 
conscience  is  not  infallible,  since  it  is  influenced  b^  edu 
cation  and  prejudice,  it  is  the  most  infallible  guide 
that  we  have  when  tested  by  the  standard  of  God  s 
Word.  We  need  not  go  astray  except  in  judgment. 
All  people  realize  the  existence  of  the  moral  law  within 
them  and,  at  times,  the  conflict  between  the  contending 
motives  that  divide  them  in  following  the  ought  or  the 
ought  not  is  severe.  We  may  illustrate  this  by  the 
story  of  the  Indian  who  bought  a  pound  of  tobacco 
into  which  the  storekeeper  by  accident  had  dropped  a 
half  shilling  piece.  Reaching  home,  the  Indian  was 
happy  when  he  found  the  silver  coin  and  he  letiied, 
congratulating  himself  upon  his  good  fortune.  But 
sleep  went  from  him,  for  through  the  entire  night  he 
said  that  two  men  within  him  kept  up  such  a  constant 
argument  that  he  could  not  sleep.  I  lie  one  said  he 
had  a  right  to  keep  the  money  and  no  one  would  be 
the  wiser,  but  the  other  insisted  that  he  must  return 
it  to  the  rightful  owner.  The  continual  wrangling 
made  him  very  unhappy  and,  as  soon  as  it  was  dawn, 
he  hastened  back  to  the  store  and  gave  it  to  the  owner 
who  thanked  him  for  his  honesty.  Then  lie  returned 
home  with  his  accustomed  peace  of  mind.  There  is  no 
peace  to  the  wicked.  We  must  do  what  we  believe 
to  be  our  moral  obligation.  The  will  must  heed  and 
execute  or  carry  out  the  monitions  of  conscience,  foi 
conscience  makes  duty  plain,  but  does  not  compel  us 
to  act  against  our  free  will.  Every  individual  enjoys 
that  high  prerogative  of  making  his  own  choice  and  no 
one  can  prevent  him  from  making  that  choice,  for  the 


97 


You  Cannot  Escape  from  Yourself 

exercise  of  the  freedom  of  the  will  belongs  to  him 
alone.  Others  may  tempt  and  influence  him  in  his 
choice  so  as  to  deter  him  from  subsequent  acts,  but 
the  final  choice  is  his  alone  with  an  untrammeled  will. 

You  are  growing  yourself  and  you  are  deciding  what 
manner  of  man  you  are  to  be.  Your  own  conduct  can 
determine  that,  for  in  order  to  be,  you  must  do.  You 
cannot  be  learned,  efficient,  generous,  a  useful  and 
honorable  member  of  society,  unless  you  do  something. 
Attainment  or  successful  achievement  can  come  only 
from  earnest  endeavor  and  devoted  service.  We  can 
not  inherit  these  as  wealth  is  often  inherited,  but  we 
must  labor  faithfully  and  do  certain  things,  as  well  as 
refrain  from  doing  certain  things.  Many  things  are 
sold  in  the  market  but  there  are  priceless  attainments 
reached  by  the  poorest,  and  these  no  wealth  can  buy. 
Many  of  our  greatest  and  most  honored  men  have 
come  from  humble  parentage.  1  here  is  no  caste  system 
in  our  country.  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  You 
are  selecting  your  associates  as  you  select  your  lead¬ 
ing.  You  decide,  where  and  how  you  spend  your  even¬ 
ings,  and  in  all  these  things  you  are  determining  the 
character  and  kind  of  man  that  you  are  to  be.  We 
can  never  change  the  past  nor  live  it  over  again  and 
undo  the  wrongs:  nor  can  we  ever  recover  or  receive 
an  additional  day  for  all  the  years  that  we  have 

wasted. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


WILL  POWER 

MORE  attention  should  be  given  to  the  fundamen¬ 
tal  importance  and  proper  development  of  the 
will  power;  for  the  moral  conviction  loses  strength 
when  will  power  is  weak  and  inoperative.  There  are 
many  people  who  do  not  intend  to  sink  into  a  life  of 
infamy,  for  they  despise  it ;  but  they  are  weak  and 
like  the  weather  vane,  they  are  turned  about  easily 
by  every  influence.  They  are  not  the  strong,  stal¬ 
wart,  and  reliable  men  in  the  community  and  church, 
but  the  poor  weaklings  who  give  us  trouble.  They 
should  cultivate  will  power  and  strong  moral  convic¬ 
tions,  and  say  with  a  firm  resolve:  “I  will  not  yield 
to  evil;  but  I  will  be  true  to  duty  and  to  God.”  No 
man  does  a  wrong  deed  until  his  will  yields  the  de¬ 
cision.  The  will  makes  the  surrender  and  we  must 
not  overlook  the  moral  responsibility.  No  one  can 
force  that  will  to  a  surrender.  God  Himself  does  not 
compel  man  to  decide  against  his  will.  He  reasons 
with  man  as  His  own  child,  and  tries  to  win  him  by 
the  power  of  His  love  as  He  entreats  him,  saying,  “Son,, 
give  me  thine  heart.”  He  knows  that  once  He  has  the 
heart,  He  will  have  the  whole  man.  This  is  God’s 
method,  who  so  loved  the  world  that  He  made  the 
boundless  sacrifice ;  because  love  is  the  greatest  power 

98 


Will  Power 


99 


in  the  world.  It  brought  God  from  heaven  to  earth; 
for  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Him¬ 
self,  and  it  draws  men  up  to  God  as  Christ  foretold. 
Without  love,  society  and  state  would  be  impossible 
the  home  would  not  be  worth  the  having,  and  no  church 
would  be  worthy  of  the  name;  for  without  love,  man 
would  cease  to  be  Christian.  Christ  entreats,  He  warns 
and  presents  the  strongest  reasons  for  being  His  faith¬ 
ful  sons  and  daughters ;  but  He  will  not  break  man  s 
will,  and  compel  him  to  yield  against  his  will. 

The  freedom  of  the  will  is  man’s  highest  prerogative, 
but  it  also  involves  man’s  greatest  responsibility.  He 
can  resist  all  the  entreaties  of  his  heavenly  Father 
just  as  he  can  spurn  those  of  his  father  and  mother. 
Yea,  he  can  defy  the  will  of  the  Almighty,  and  plunge 
into  vice  and  become  his  own  destroyer.  Tike  the 
high  priest  of  old  who  rejected  Jesus  for  Barabbas, 
men  and  women  still  turn  from  Him  to  the  companions 
and  haunts  of  iniquity.  How  touching  is  that  picture 
of  Jesus,  given  in  the  Book  of  Revelation !  “Behold 
I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock:  if  any  man  hear  My 
voice  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to  him,  and 
will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  Me.”  He  could  not 
do  more  for  man’s  salvation  than  He  has  done ;  and 
He  is  ever  striving  with  man ;  for  “it  is  God  who  work- 
eth  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  work  for  his  good  pleas¬ 
ure  ;”  but  He  does  not  compel.  In  that  vast  army  of 
Christian  workers  around  the  world,  I  did  not  see  one 
who  had  been  forced  into  that  service  against  his  or 
her  will.  All  were  volunteers ;  and  no  drafting  nor 
conscription  is  necessary  in  God’s  service  where  all 
are  constrained  by  the  power  of  His  love.  On  the 


100  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

Yangtze,  we  met  Dr.  Rijnhardt  on  her  way  back  to 
the  forbidden  country  Tibet,  where  her  only  child 
had  died  several  years  before,  and  where  soon  after, 
her  husband  had  been  murdered.  She  had  returned  to 
America  to  recuperate,  and  was  going  back  to  her 
field  of  labor,  with  no  companion,  but  sustained  by  the 
overmastering  consciousness  that  Christ  was  leading 
her. 

The  character  of  the  will  stamps  the  character  of 
the  man.  The  burglar  in  his  cell  is  committing  no  out¬ 
ward  evil,  for  his  body  is  under  restraint;  but  his  will 
is  free  and  may  be  unchanged  in  character,  and  only 
waiting  an  opportunity  for  its  exercise.  The  prison 
is  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  public  against 
evil-doers,  but  it  has  been  an  acknowledged  failure  so 
far  as  reformation  of  character  is  concerned;  tor 
two-thirds  of  all  the  convicts  return  to  prison  again, 
and  it  is  not  the  institution  where  the  best  citizenship 
is  developed.  Whilst  no  man  ever  was  forced  to  sin 
against  his  will,  in  a  like  manner  no  man  ever  was 
compelled  to  be  virtuous  against  his  will.  The  char¬ 
acter  was  in  the  choice,  desire,  and  purpose,  though 
the  deed  was  not  yet  committed;  just  as  Jesus  spoke 
of  those  who  committed  adultery  in  their  hearts. 

The  will  is  supreme  in  man  ;  and  by  its  exercise,  man 
makes  the  most  practical  tests  in  human  experience. 
This  is  true  in  the  physical,  social,  moral,  intellectual, 
and  religious  realm.  We  must  will  to  do,  to  learn,  to 
travel,  to  experiment.  Faith  enters  into  the  affairs 
of  our  daily  life;  for  it  is  true  that  “we  walk  by  faith 
and  not  by  sight.”  “O  taste  and  see  that  Jehovah  is 
good;  blessed  is  the  man  that  taketh  refuge  in  him.” 


Will  Power 


101 


Every  man  by  the  exercise  of  his  will  can  make  a  per¬ 
sonal  test  of  this  statement;  or  he  may  decline  to  do 
so.  Jesus  says  to  the  wayward:  “Ye  will  not  come 
unto  Me  that  ye  might  have  life.”  To  the  doubter  and 
disputer  He  gives  the  bold  challenge  to  make  the  test 
for  themselves,  in  these  significant  words  “If  any  man 
willeth  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching, 
whether  it  is  of  God,  or  whether  I  speak  of  Myself.” 
Christ’s  proposition  is  reasonable  and  philosophical, 
and  men  should  make  the  practical  test  so  that  they 
may  know.  You  cannot  know  any  fact  of  science  or 
history,  until  you  will  to  know  it  by  applying  the  neces¬ 
sary  test.  You  either  must  will  to  investigate  for  your¬ 
self  as  a  scientist,  or  else  will  to  listen  to  an  acknowl¬ 
edged  authority,  or  read  the  conclusions  of  science. 
You  must  will  to  do  certain  things  if  you  would  learn 
history.  The  archeologist  and  explorer  must  will  to 
leave  home  and  travel  far  away  to  the  special  fields  foi 
investigation.  Neither  indifference  nor  denial  would 
give  information. 

The  same  is  true  in  the  realm  of  religion.  We  can¬ 
not  know  Christ,  the  Bible,  and  Christianity,  unless  we 
will  that  we  will  devote  ourselves  seriously  to  the  study 
of  them.  Some  will,  that  they  will  not  believe  in  Christ 
as  the  Savior  of  man.  They  refuse  absolutely  to  make 
the  practical  test  that  Jesus  offers.  He  entreats  them 
in  those  wonderful  words  when  He  spake  as  no  man 
ever  spake,  and  which  every  one  can  test  for  himself: 
“Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  My  yoke  upon  you, 
and  learn  of  Me;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart, 
and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls;  for  My  yoke 


102  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

is  easy  and  My  burden  is  light.”  Here  by  your  own 
mental  process  you  can  will  to  make  the  test,  by 
willing  to  do  what  Jesus  invites  you  to  do,  and  with 
that  faithful  exercise  of  will  power  will  come  the  sat¬ 
isfying  conviction  that  Jesus  promises.  Your  happi¬ 
ness  and  salvation  are  dependent  upon  your  willing  to 
do  as  He  enjoins;  for  even  the  Savior  of  the  world 
cannot  save  you  against  your  will.  Your  mental  at¬ 
titude  must  be  in  harmony  with  Him ;  and  your  per¬ 
sonal  will  alone  can  make  your  co-operation  effectual 
in  fellowship  with  Christ.  There  might  be  an  abun¬ 
dance  of  food  to  supply  our  physical  wants,  but  un¬ 
less  we  willed  to  take  and  eat,  we  would  starve  and 
death  would  be  inevitable.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
spiritual  and  eternal  life.  Jesus  says:  “Take  eat — 
this  is  My  body  which  is  given  for  you.”  “I  am 
the  bread  which  came  down  from  heaven — of  which  if 
a  man  eat,  he  shall  live  forever.”  Every  man  wills 
either  to  obey  or  to  disobey.  He  wills  to  accept  or  he 
wills  to  reject  Christ. 

The  sovereignty  of  the  will  was  imperative  in  the 
three  Hebrew  children,  when  they  replied  to  the  threat 
of  the  Eastern  potentate:  “O  Nebuchednezzar,  we 
have  no  need  to  answer  thee  in  this  matter.  If  it  be  so, 
our  God  whom  we  serve,  is  able  to  deliver  us  from  the 
burning  fiery  furnace;  and  He  will  deliver  us  from  out 
of  thy  hand,  O  king.  But  if  not,  be  it  known  unto 
thee,  O  king,  that  we  will  not  serve  thy  gods,  nor 
worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast  set  up.” 
There  was  a  firm  and  uncompromising  assertion  of 
finality  of  the  moral  and  religious  conviction,  whatever 
the  consequences  might  be.  We  are  responsible  for 


Will  Power 


103 


fidelity  to  duty  and  God,  but  not  for  results.  We 
must  obey  God  though  men  may  tempt  and  thi  eaten 
us.  Jesus  recognized  the  power  and  moral  respon¬ 
sibility  of  the  will,  when  he  said :  “If  any  man  willeth 
to  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching,  whether 
it  is  of  God,  or  whether  I  speak  from  myself.”  He 
was  ready  to  submit  to  that  practical  test  of  the 
will,  but  not  to  blind  prejudice  and  inactivity.  There 
was  no  hope  for  the  restoration  of  the  Prodigal  Son 
until  with  indomitable  purpose  of  will,  he  said :  I 

will  arise  and  go  unto  my  father.”  The  exercise  of 
that  will  lifted  him  from  a  life  of  degradation  and 
brought  him  home  to  his  father. 

This  exercise  of  will  power  may  involve  strenuous 
thinking;  and  you  must  realize  the  situation — that  all 
is  at  stake  and  dependent  upon  your  immediate  course 
of  action.  No  sluggish,  dreamy  thinking  can  be  toler¬ 
ated  for  a  moment.  You  must  act  aright  and  at 
once,  or  all  is  lost.  It  may  require  a  firm  venture  of 
faith,  but  the  circumstances  require  it.  You  may  re¬ 
call  the  infamous  conspiracy  of  Haman  in  plotting 
through  Ahasuerus,  the  destruction  of  all  the  Jews 
in  his  kingdom,  and  how  Mordecai  appealed  to  Esther 
the  queen  to  go  to  the  king  and  implore  him  to  spai  e 
her  people.  She  realized  the  grave  peril  in  daring  to 
appear  before  the  ruler  without  his  order,  for  it  meant 
death  in  case  she  should  not  gain  his  favor.  But  the 
appalling  crisis  moved  her  to  dare  to  follow  her  convic¬ 
tions  of  duty  for  her  doomed  people,  and  hence  she 
replied:  “I  will  go  unto  the  king,  which  is  not  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  law ;  and  if  I  perish,  I  perish !  She 
willed  to  do  her  duty,  and  her  people  were  saved  from 


104  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

the  threatened  destruction. 

God  has  endowed  man  with  reason  and  the  moral 
faculty  that  distinguishes  between  good  and  evil ;  and 
men  fall,  not  because  of  ignorance  but  temptation. 
While  our  sinful  natures  incline  us  to  evil,  we  are  free 
to  choose  and  act ;  because  the  supremacy  of  the  will 
power  is  our  right  and  sure  defence  until  we  voluntar¬ 
ily  surrender  it.  Whether  temptation  comes  through 
the  eye  or  visions  of  the  imagination,  or  evil  sugges¬ 
tions  and  desires  through  indulgence  in  sin,  the  man 
stands  until  be  wills  to  }deld  to  what  he  knows  to  be 
wrong;  for  God  speaks  through  his  conscience.  Thus, 
this  sovereign  ruler  in  man  may  be  dethroned  by  hard  ¬ 
ening  of  the  heart;  for  no  sin  committed  stands  alone, 
but  renders  us  susceptible  to  other  sins,  each  addi¬ 
tional  one  bearing  us  farther  away  and  making  re¬ 
sistance  more  difficult — hence  the  warning;  for  we  are 
responsible  for  the  evil  habits  that  we  grow,  and  the 
fruits  thereof. 

There  has  been  a  tendency,  on  the  part  of  many,  to 
excuse  wrongdoing,  because  of  the  law  of  heredity  and 
environment.  Whilst  much  depends  upon  these  recog¬ 
nized  influences,  they  have  been  greatly  overestimated ; 
for  multitudes  have  attained  to  eminence  and  nobility 
of  character  in  spite  of  the  most  adverse  conditions  of 
birth  and  surroundings.  On  the  other  hand,  untold 
numbers  with  the  best  ancestry  and  environment,  have 
gone  down  in  moral  shipwreck  and  shame.  God  is  no 
respecter  of  persons ;  but  loves  all  and  seeks  their 
highest  good  by  making  a  strong  personal  appeal 
through  the  conscience.  They  make  the  decision  just 
as  the  child  that  rejects  the  appeals  of  a  loving  father 


Will  Power 


105 


and  chooses  companions  among  the  wicked;  for  he 
casts  his  own  die — with  a  free  hand  and  not  by  com¬ 
pulsion.  There  is  a  growing  and  dangerous  tendency 
to  claim  that  these  basely  immoral  evil-doers  are  in¬ 
sane;  but  they  are  shrewd  in  the  ways  of  evil,  so  as  to 
escape  the  penalty  of  the  law,  and  they  know  what 
they  are  doing.  It  might  be  nearer  the  truth  and  safer 
to  say  that  by  a  life  of  sin,  they  have  become  morally 
insane  and  have  lost  all  sense  of  shame  and  compunc¬ 
tion  of  conscience. 

Some  would  excuse  themselves  by  saying  that  they 
did  the  best  they  could,  but  were  hedged  in  and  beset 
by  the  peculiar  circumstances  that  made  a  better  life 
impossible;  but  no  thoughtful  man  would  seek  to  jus¬ 
tify  himself  before  God  with  such  a  claim  that  is  at 
direct  variance  with  God’s  word.  “Let  him  that  think 
eth  he  standeth  take  heed  lest  he  fall.  There  hath  no 
temptation  taken  you  but  such  as  man  can  bear;  but 
God  is  faithful,  who  will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted 
above  that  you  are  able ;  but  will,  with  the  temptation, 
make  also  the  way  of  escape,  that  ye  may  be  able  to 
endure  it.”  In  the  face  of  such  plain  teaching  you 
cannot  say  that  you  did  your  best,  when  you  yielded 
to  temptation.  God  is  pledged  to  help  you,  and  with 
His  superadded  grace  you  may  overcome  the  severest 
conflict.  “I  can  do  all  things  through  Him  that 
strengtheneth  me,”  and  this  assurance  will  be  your 
realization,  if  faithful.  The  way  to  victory  is  in  the 
immediate  obedience  to  the  divine  will;  for  if  you  dally 
with  the  temptation,  as  the  child  plays  with  the  fire, 
then  you  may  become  shorn  of  your  power  of  resist¬ 
ance  and  be  overcome  by  sin.  Be  not  a  thing  like  the 


106  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

weather  vane — the  sport  of  every  passing  breeze ;  but 
remember  that  you  are  a  child  of  God  though  you  may 
be  a  very  unworthy  one,  and  you  can  will  to  rise  to 
fellowship  with  Him. 

Man  is  responsible  for  his  own  moral  character. 
He  could  not  determine  the  character  of  his  parents 
and  early  environment  and  the  inherent  weakness ;  for 
man  is  born  with  sinful  tendencies,  dispositions,  and 
temperaments  that  tend  downward.  But  he  is  not 
bound  by  them  as  an  automaton ;  because  he  is  en¬ 
dowed  with  reason,  conscience,  and  self-determining 
will  whereby  he  may  suppress  for  the  time,  or  control, 
the  temptations  to  sin.  Our  moral  character  is  not 
something  inherited,  but  is  the  result  of  our  own  self- 
determining  will  put  into  action  and  developed  by  a 
series  of  personal  acts  of  conduct  that  we  ourselves 
have  chosen  to  perform;  and  by  this  choice,  have 
grown  to  become  what  we  are.  This  character  was  de¬ 
termined  by  the  free  exercise  of  our  will  and  not  forced 
upon  us ;  because  it  has  been  said  well  that  character 
is  a  completely  fashioned  will,  and  consists — as  far 
as  it  is  good — in  right  choice.  In  conscience  we  have 
an  uncompromising  and  imperative  moral  conviction 
of  duty  that  points  out  the  way;  but  the  will  of  man 
is  the  motive  power  and  decides  the  action.  Hence 
we  suffer  self-condemnation  and  remorse  after  we  have 
sinned;  for  we  know  that  we  might  have  willed  to  act 
differently. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


SELF-MURDER 

WE  are  often  shocked  as  we  read  of  that  terrible 
crime  of  self-murder,  or  suicide.  We  are  ap¬ 
palled  at  the  ever-increasing1  number.  Is  there  no 
remedy,  and  shall  the  suicidal  craze  continue  without 
raising  a  voice  of  protest?  Should  not  public  opinion 
express  itself  in  strong  words  of  condemnation  instead 
of  apologizing  lor  it  as  some  unavoidable  weakness 
or  case  of  temporary  insanity  without  moral  respon¬ 
sibility?  Unquestionably  some  were  insane,  for  no 
sane  righteous  man  would  destroy  himself ;  but  I  refer 
to  that  class  of  suicides  who  by  unrighteous  living 
became  involved  in  shame,  or  so  utterly  disgusted  with 
their  unsatisfactory  lives  of  sin  and  disobedience,  that 
in  desperation,  they  finally  yielded  to  the  base  motives 
that  had  controlled  them  for  years,  and  ended  theii 
careers  by  committing  that  awful  crime  against  God 
and  society  by  murdering  themselves. 

The  universal  desire  for  life  and  the  efforts  to  pro¬ 
long  it,  are  evidence  that  the  suicidal  tendency  that 
impels  some  men  to  destroy  themselves  is  most  un¬ 
natural,  being  contrary  to  the  normal  state  of  man¬ 
kind.  Hence  the  impulse  that  leads  to  self-destruction 
must  be  due  to  some  abnormal  temporary  state  of  the 
mind,  some  peculiar  psychological  condition,  or  else 

107 


108  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

how  could  man  commit  that  horrible  act  which  is  so 
contrary  to  reason,  conscience,  and  the  universal  sen¬ 
timent  of  man  in  his  struggles  for  life?  True,  when 
at  the  critical  moment  that  he  is  overmastered  by  the 
impulse  to  destroy  himself,  then  the  desire  to  live  has 
ceased  to  assert  itself,  for  the  morbid  tendency  is  in 
control.  Men  at  such  a  stage  need  a  friend  with  a 
strong  mind  to  arouse  the  moral  consciousness  into 
action.  The  fault  is  in  his  indulging  vain  thoughts 
that  there  is  nothing  to  live  for  and  in  his  failure  to 
realize  the  character  of  the  shocking  crime  that  he  is 
contemplating.  Men  will  make  any  sacrifice  to  prolong 
life  and  nothing  could  be  more  unnatural  than  foi  a 
sane  man  to  cut  short  his  own  life.  Such  men  must 
change  their  philosophy  of  life  and  get  the  divine  mean¬ 
ing  of  life  and  live  their  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

This  mournful  tragedy,  like  all  sin,  is  due  to  supreme 
selfishness ;  for  the  suicide  ignores  his  highest  duty  to 
others,  even  the  rights  and  welfare  of  his  own  family, 
as  if  indifferent  as  to  how  his  deed  will  affect  their 
happiness.  lie  may  say  that  his  trouble  is  too  great 
to  bear  because  of  sad  reverses  and  the  consequent 
mental  suffering,  but  that  is  a  mean  and  cowardly 
attitude  for  a  man,  a  husband,  and  a  father.  How 
shall  the  faithful  wife  bear  it  all  alone ;  and  in  addition 
thereto,  the  terrible  shame,  loneliness,  and  sorrow  of 
bereavement  that  his  contemplated  act  will  bring  upon 
her  who  was  in  no  way  responsible  for  the  trouble  that 
he  brought  upon  himself. 

From  my  experience  with  some  would-be  suicides 
whom  1  rescued  from  their  horrible  purpose,  and  from 
what  I  have  learned  concerning  some  who  committed 


109 


Self-Murder 

the  deed,  I  feel  persuaded  that  could  I  have  been  with 
them  when  tempted  to  commit  the  act,  I  could  have 
saved  them  from  their  taking  off.  They  needed  to  have 
their  minds  turned  to  a  different  angle— -to  see  things 
from  another  viewpoint  and  to  have  their  moral  con¬ 
viction  aroused  to  feel  the  enormity  of  the  crime  con¬ 
templated  and  all  that  it  involved  for  time  and  eter¬ 
nity.  They  are  not  their  own;  they  belong  to  others 
whom  they  are  bound  to  serve,  and  they  are  respon¬ 
sible  for  their  influence.  They  belong  to  God,  in  His 
likeness  they  were  created,  and  they  dare  not.  destroy 
that  divine  image  by  an  act  of  self-destruction. 

Could  such  men  see  themselves  as  others  will  see 
them,  they  would  shrink  in  horror  from  the  temptation. 
Let  him  who  entertains  such  a  foul  purpose,  pause  foi 
a  moment  and  visualize  the  scene  of  his  postmortem 
suicidal  act,  and  that  horrible  spectacle  will  not  at¬ 
tract  him.  Let  him  look  into  the  faces  of  the  friends 
who  stand  about  him,  and  he  will  appear  so  contempt¬ 
ible  in  that  contemplated  tragedy  that  he  would  hide 
his  face  from  them,  and  never  would  he  commit  that 
shocking  crime  of  self-murder.  Let  him  study  the  sor¬ 
rowful  features  of  his  loved  ones  whom  he  would  wrong 
as  no  other  man  could  wrong  them;  and  let  him  tiy 
to  read  their  thoughts  and  feel  their  sorrows  and 
shame,  and  then  he  will  suffer  such  a  hell  of  remorse 
that  he  will  assert  his  manhood  and  banish  the  wicked 
thoughts  that  he  had  cherished  until  they  almost  had 
overcome  him. 

When  such  suggestions  come,  realize  the  danger  and 
banish  them  at  once  by  the  firm  assertion  of  the  con¬ 
sciousness  of  Christ’s  presence,  who  sees  us  and  knows 


110  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

our  thoughts  and  stands  ready  to  deliver  us.  But  we 
must  suppress  the  evil  suggestions  at  once  before  they 
get  us  in  their  remorseless  grip.  Direct  your  thoughts 
to  your  loving  heavenly  Father,  for  “we  are  kept  by 
the  power  of  God,  through  faith  unto  salvation.”  In 
every  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  conflict,  remember 
that  Christ  is  no  absent  nor  indifferent  spectator ;  but 
He  is  near,  and  able  and  willing  to  save  us.  Let  those 
who  are  dissatisfied,  learn  the  secret  of  their  trouble, 
change  their  philosophy  of  life,  accept  Christ  and  His 
Gospel  of  good  news,  and  their  life  will  be  changed. 
God  has  not  cast  us  off,  but  on  the  contrary  gives  us 
this  assurance  of  love:  “I  will  be  a  Father  unto  you, 
and  ye  shall  be  my  sons  and  daughters.”  With  the 
consciousness  of  His  presence,  temptations  would  lose 
their  attractiveness  and  they  would  fail  to  overcome 
us.  He  who  is  for  us  is  mightier  than  all  the  forces 
against  us,  and  His  grace  is  ever  sufficient  for  us;  hut 
we  must  keep  ourselves  in  right  relation  to  Him,  to  feel 
His  power. 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  POWER  OF  PRAYER 


LIFE  of  prayer  is  all  important;  and  Jesus  en- 


-CjL  joined  its  necessity  upon  his  disciples  when  he 
said:  44 Watch  and  pray,  lest  ye  enter  into  tempta¬ 
tion.”  In  the  brief  prayer  that  he  taught  us  all  to 
pray,  he  gave  the  petition  “Lead  us  not  into  tempta¬ 
tion,  but  deliver  us  from  the  evil.”  We  pray  that  he 
would  so  lead  us  that  either  we  may  escape  temptation, 
or  else  be  able  to  overcome  it. 

Prayer,  whether  silent  or  audible,  is  our  mental  and 
spiritual  attitude  by  which  we  make  our  approach  to 
the  Supreme  God,  our  heavenly  Father,  and  express 
the  feelings,  the  needs,  the  convictions,  the  faith,  and 
repentance  of  the  soul,  to  Him  who  looketh  into  the 
secret  chamber  of  the  heart,  and  rewards  us  accord¬ 
ingly.  It  is  a  most  real  and  intimate  intercourse  be¬ 
tween  the  inner  hidden  man  of  the  heart,  and  the  un¬ 
seen  God.  Two  persons  are  involved  and  both  are 
interested, — the  petitioner  and  the  hearer  of  prayer. 
He  may  not  give  you  just  what  you  ask  for;  but,  if 
sincere,  he  always  will  give  you  a  blessing,  though  not 
a  material  one.  Men  always  have  prayed,  and  always 
will  continue  to  do  so ;  for  man  realizes  his  helpless¬ 
ness  and  sinful  condition,  and  hence,  in  his  innermost 
soul,  he  reaches  out  and  seeks  help  and  forgiveness 


111 


112  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

from  Him  who  speaks  through  our  moral  convictions, 
and  who  once  came  in  Christ  to  save  all  men.  Distance 
and  invisibility  are  no  barriers  to  the  mind;  foi  we 
can  think  of  friends  and  visualize  them,  though  a  thou¬ 
sand  miles  away ;  and  in  our  minds  see  them  as  clearl  y 
and  love  them  as  truly  as  if  living  in  an  adjacent 
street;  and  the  same  is  true  of  Christ,  whom  not  hav¬ 
ing  seen  we  love,  and  feel  the  constraining  power  of  his 

love. 

Man  as  a  religious  being,  feels  the  necessity  of 
prayer,  and  in  his  extremity  instinctively  cries  out  to 
God  for  relief:  “0  thou  that  liearest  prayer,  unto 
thee  must  all  flesh  come.  My  heart  and  my  strength 
faileth,  but  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart  and  my 
portion  forever.”  Man  can  pray  anywhere  and  al¬ 
ways,  for  it  does  not  consist  in  posture  of  the  body , 
but  in  the  mental  and  spiritual  attitude  of  the  soul  to¬ 
ward  God.  The  Apostle  Paul,  through  years  of  stren¬ 
uous  experience,  realized  its  practical  importance ,  and 
this  is  what  lie  enjoins  upon  us:  “In  nothing  be  anx¬ 
ious  ;  but  in  everything  by  prayer  and  supplication 
with  thanksgiving,  let  your  requests  be  known  unto 
God ;  and  the  peace  of  God  that  passeth  all  understand¬ 
ing,  shall  guard  your  hearts  and  thoughts  in  Christ 
Jesus.”  That  is  a  wonderful  assurance.  It  seems  al¬ 
most  too  good  to  be  true ;  but  Paul  knew  what  he  was 
saying;  for  he  had  made  the  thorough  test.  It  was  his 
personal  corroboration  of  the  truth  that  Christ  prom¬ 
ised  when  he  said  to  his  disciples :  “Ask,  and  it  shall 
be  given  you ;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find ;  knock,  and  it  shall 
be  opened  unto  you ;  for  every  one  that  asketh,  receiv- 
eth;  and  he  that  seeketh,  findeth;  and  to  him  that 


113 


The  Power  of  Prayer 

knocketh,  it  shall  be  opened.  Or  what  man  is  there 
among  you,  who  if  his  son  shall  ask  him  for  a  loaf,  will 
give  him  a  stone ;  or  if  he  shall  ask  for  a  fish,  will 
give  him  a  serpent?  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how 
to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  moic 
shall  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven,  give  good  things 
to  them  that  ask  him?” 

We  know  that  there  are  dark  days  and  trying  ex¬ 
periences  when  God  withholds  things  for  which  "we 
pray;  and  seems  to  give  us  a  stone  instead  of  a  loaf; 
but  things  are  not  always  as  they  seem;  and  Christ 
has  warned  us  not  to  judge  according  to  the  appear¬ 
ance,  but  to  judge  rightly  and  not  before  the  time. 
We  must  believe  and  follow  him  in  the  dark,  though 
we  cannot  see  the  hand  that  leads  us,  noi  the  reason 
why ;  but  let  God  be  his  own  interpreter ;  and  in  time 
we  shall  see  that  all  was  for  the  best.  A  mother  told 
me  that  when  her  little  boy  was  nigh  unto  death,  she 
prayed  God  that  if  he  loved  her,  He  must  spaie  hei 
child.  Years  later  when  that  son  was  serving  a  term 
in  prison,  she  confessed  her  mistake  and  how  she  would 
have  mistaken  the  goodness  of  God,  had  her  boy  not 
recovered.  The  brothers  of  J oseph  meant  it  for  evil 
when  they  sold  him  into  Egypt;  but  God  intended  it 
for  good,  and  we  must  not  seek  to  interpret  God  s  pro¬ 
vidences ;  for  we  cannot  understand  the  1  elation  of 
present  experiences  and  purposes  in  the  divine  plan 
for  the  eternal  life. 

We  do  not  pray  to  instruct  God,  as  though  He 
needed  information,  nor  to  remind  Him  as  though  He 
had  forgotten  us,  nor  to  attempt  to  pei  suade  Him 
against  His  will.  Nay,  rather  we  pray  to  become  more 


114  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

Christlike  and  conformed  to  His  will,  by  seeing  our¬ 
selves  as  we  are  before  God,  making  confession  of  sin 
with  true  repentance,  and  resolved  to  lead  better  lives. 
“Thy  will  be  done,”  must  be  the  underlying  spirit, 
breathed  through  every  prayer ;  for  we  would  have  Him 
reign  in  us.  Often  our  greatest  needs  aie  spiritual 
and  moral,  and  of  vastly  more  importance  to  us  than 
any  material  thing;  and  we  are  helped  like  the  child 
in  a  heart-to-heart  talk  with  its  father. 

Christ  encourages  us  to  come  to  Him  with  what¬ 
ever  concerns  us.  He  docs  not  limit  us ;  for  this  fellow¬ 
ship  and  conversation  with  God  is  what  we  all  need ; 
and  in  this  intimate  communion  with  Him,  He  will  sup¬ 
ply  our  needs.  Do  not  think  of  Him  as  afar  off  in 
the  heavens,  seated  upon  a  throne  that  we  cannot 
approach ;  for  in  God  we  live  and  move  and  have  oui 
being.  He  taught  us  the  divine  immanence ;  for  Christ 
abides  in  us  and  we  in  Him ;  and  He  influences  our 
thought  and  life. 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  learned  from  astronomy  the 
vast  distance  of  the  planets  from  the  earth,  and  then 
I  imagined  God?s  throne  beyond  the  most  distant  world 
— so  far  away  that  it  was  difficult  to  conceive  how  such 
a  ruler  could  see  and  hear  us  frail  beings  when  we  pray , 
but  my  conception  of  God  was  an  erroneous  one,  and 
I  did  not  get  near  Him.  Lyman  Abbott  has  well  said 
“That  the  spirit  of  man  can  hold  communion  with  the 
invisible  Spirit  of  God,  and  from  such  communion  re¬ 
ceive  comfort,  counsel,  strength,  peace  and  joy,  is  at¬ 
tested  to  by  so  many  and  so  various  witnesses — that  it 
can  be  doubted  only  by  doubting  the  veracity  of  the 
human  conviction,  which  is  the  basis  of  knowledge.  T.  he 


115 


The  Power  of  Prayer 

experience  of  inspiration  derived  from  communion  with 
God  is  more  universal  than  the  experience  of  inspira¬ 
tion  derived  either  from  art  or  from  music.  I  he  testi¬ 
mony  to  the  reality  of  friendship  with  God  is  probably 
nearly  as  universal  as  the  testimony  to  the  reality  and 
value  of  human  friendship.” 

Abbott  quotes  from  Matthew  Arnold :  “If  they  ask, 
‘How  are  wTe  to  verify  that  there  rules  an  enduring 
Power — not  ourselves — which  makes  for  righteous¬ 
ness?5  We  may  answer  at  once:  ‘Just  as  you  verify 
that  fire  burns — by  experience.  It  is  so;  try  it;  every 
case  of  conduct  of  that  which  is  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  your  own  life  and  of  the  life  of  all  man¬ 
kind,  will  prove  it  to  you.5  55  Test  it  for  yourself. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


SILENCE  TEMPTATION  BY  QUOTING  THE  BIBLE 

THE  Bible  is  a  final  help,  since  the  tempted  must 
appeal  to  the  Word  of  God.  This  was  the  in¬ 
fallible  source  from  which  Jesus  drew  the  reply  that 
put  the  tempter  to  flight.  Thrice  he  replied  with  an 
apt  quotation  from  the  Scriptures  that  completely 
silenced  the  evil  one,  and  that  is  an  example  foi  us. 
Store  your  mind  with  choice  passages  from  God  s 
Word;  for  preparedness  is  necessary — and  then  use 
them  promptly  when  occasion  arises,  and  stand  by 
them.  You  need  not  be  afraid  to  take  God  at  His 
word.  He  has  not  promised  more  than  He  is  able  and 
willing  to  fulfill.  There  is  great  inherent  power  m 
that  Word;  for  the  same  Holy  Spirit  who  inspired 
it,  also  accompanies  it  with  his  potent  influence  ;  and 
Christ  is  inseparable  from  the  most  precious  promises 
contained  in  it.  Jesus  spoke  of  the  regenerating  power 
of  the  indwelling  of  that  divine  Word,  when  he  said  to 
his  disciples:  “Already  ye  are  clean  because  of  the 
word  which  I  have  spoken  unto  you.  As  the  branch 
cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself  except  it  abide  in  the  vine, 
so  neither  can  ye  except  ye  abide  in  me.  If  ye  abide 
in  me,  and  my  words  abide  in  you,  ask  what  ye  will, 
and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you.”  “These  things  have 
I  spoken  unto  you,  that  my  joy  may  be  in  you,  and 

116 


Silence  Temptation  bp  Quoting  the  Bible  117 

that  your  joy  may  be  made  full.”  This  generous  prom¬ 
ise  makes  Christ’s  words  attractive  and  worthy  to  be 
treasured  in  our  hearts.  In  order  to  realize  this  joy, 
his  words  must  abide  in  us ;  for  we  must  live  them  and 
desire  to  be  influenced  by  them.  If  we  live  our  life  in 
harmony  with  Christ,  then  we  will  not  pray  Him  for 
anything  that  would  be  contrary  to  his  purpose,  but 
will  submit  our  wishes  so  far  as  they  may  be  m  ac¬ 
cordance  with  His  holy  will.  Here  we  must  place  the 
emphasis  where  the  limitation  is  clearly  expressed  in 
the  promise ;  for  no  one  need  suppose  that  Christ  would 
work  contradictions  or  grant  anything  contrary  to 
His  wisdom  and  love  in  His  divine  government  for  all 
men.  Our  life  must  be  lived  with  Christ  in  God ;  and 
then  we  will  not  be  so  much  disturbed  about  the  an¬ 
swers  to  our  prayers.  It  is  sad  that  so  many  should 
be  so  ignorant  as  to  the  contents  of  the  Bible.  No 
wonder  that  they  are  weak,  helpless  and  cast  down 
when  trouble  comes;  for  they  do  not  fill  their  minds 
with  the  rich  and  precious  promises.  They  do  not  avail 
themselves  of  the  proffered  help,  and  heed  not  the  ex¬ 
hortation  of  Paul,  “Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you 
richly.”  The  Bible  is  no  Blue  Book.  Read  it  and 
become  convinced  of  the  truth,  that  Christ  declared 
that  these  truths  would  make  their  joy  full. 

We  may  rightly  infer  the  positive  value  in  repeating 
some  appropriate  passage  from  God’s  Word,  when  se¬ 
verely  tried;  for  every  one  knows  the  potency  of  a 
thought  in  arousing  or  changing  our  feelings,  and 
how  much  more  potent  is  a  word  or  promise  when 
spoken  by  our  Saviour?  We  know  the  effect  of  His 
words  upon  His  disciples. 


118  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

Paul  suffered  severely  from  some  physical  ailment, 
and  he  besought  the  Lord  thrice  to  remove  it ;  and  he 
would  have  continued  to  pray  for  its  removal,  but 
God  gave  him  the  gracious  answer :  “My  grace  is 
sufficient  for  thee.”  Those  were  precious  words,  and 
they  sustained  the  Apostle  through  life,  even  unto 
martyrdom.  We  should  ever  treasure  these  words ; 
for  when  the  worst  comes  and  we  can  do  no  more,  we 
have  the  divine  assurance  that  He  will  sustain  us  by 
His  grace.  Sickness  will  come  and  the  sorrows  of 
bereavement ;  and  finally  God  will  call  us  home ;  but 
through  all  these  trials,  Plis  grace  will  be  sufficient  for 
us. 

I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  intellectual  difficulties  that 
tempt  men  at  times  to  disbelieve  the  divine  record,  but 
the  difficulties  encountered  by  unbelief  are  greater.  If 
God  is  love  and  our  heavenly  Father,  then  He  must 
have  shown  His  love  by  doing  all  that  He  could  for 
man’s  redemption,  even  at  the  greatest  sacrifice;  for 
love  always  expresses  itself  in  deeds.  What  sacrifices 
a  mother  will  make  for  her  child — even  for  a  very  un¬ 
worthy  one ;  but  if  an  imperfect  mother  will  do  so 
much  for  one  child,  is  it  unreasonable  that  God  our 
heavenly  Father  should  have  made  the  great  sacrifice, 
to  save  the  world  of  humanity?  God  always  loved; 
and  He  took  the  initiative  by  sending  His  own  Son ; 
and  the  method  that  He  adopted  in  His  wisdom  and 
love,  does  not  seem  impossible  nor  unreasonable  when 
we  recognize  man  in  his  rightful  place  as  a  child  of 
God,  though  fallen  into  sin;  for  he  was  originally  cre¬ 
ated  in  God’s  own  image.  God  came  in  Christ  as  the 
necessary  response  to  the  universal  cry  of  the  human 


Silence  Temptation  bp  Quoting  the  Bible  119 

soul,  as  expressed  by  the  Apostle  Philip:  “Show  us 
the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us.”  God  must  reveal  Him¬ 
self  through  a  person.  There  is  world-wide  power  in 
the  personal  Christ — since  the  Greeks  first  came  to  the 
disciples  with  their  anxious  inquiry:  “Sir,  we  would 
see  Jesus.” 

When  tempted  to  doubt  God  and  His  word,  concern¬ 
ing  His  being  manifested  through  Christ  to  redeem 
fallen  humanity,  we  must  go  to  His  Word,  and  let 
God  speak  to  us  for  Himself.  No  one  has  been  so 
misunderstood  and  misrepresented  as  God,  our  hea¬ 
venly  Father;  and  not  only  by  the  unbeliever  but  by 
His  own  professed  followers.  Some  have  made  Him 
responsible  for  all  their  afflictions — for  pestilence,  fire 
and  sword;  for  the  most  ardent  persecutors  in  the 
wars  of  religion  found  their  warrant  for  the  bloody 
slaughter  in  the  Scriptures  that  they  perverted.  In 
fact  they  had  grossly  false  conceptions  of  God,  as  a 
being  who  found  pleasure  in  the  suffering  of  mankind, 
and  hence  they  practised  all  manner  of  worse  than 
pagan  tortures  of  their  own  bodies ;  and  the  flagel¬ 
lants  went  mad  in  their  excesses,  to  scourge  their  bared 
backs  with  a  lash,  to  which  small  pieces  of  sharp  iron 
were  attached,  until  the  blood  streamed  over  their 
lacerated  bodies.  The  Church,  in  places,  went  so  far 
astray  in  its  interpretation  of  the  being  of  God,  that 
the  state  intervened  to  prevent  the  shocking  practices. 
Science  had  not  discovered  the  laws  of  sanitation;  and 
hence  God  was  made  the  agent  for  all  manner  of  sick¬ 
ness.  Those  were  the  days  of  a  horribly  gloomy 
Christianity,  when  their  conceptions  of  Christ  were 
often  a  caricature — when  they  sought  to  please  him  by 


120  Help  When  Templed  and  Tried 

torturing  the  body  with  haircloth ;  and  when  asceticism 
flourished  in  its  most  repellant  forms. 

The  little  children  would  never  have  been  attracted 
to  that  severe  type  of  Jesus ;  and  He  would  not  have 
attended  the  marriage  feast  at  Cana  in  Galilee.  Our 
loving  heavenly  Father  and  Savior  take  no  pleasure  in 
such  self-inflicted  suffering.  It  is  not  the  anger  of  God 
and  the  lack  of  His  love,  that  cause  typhoid  fever, 
cholera,  and  the  bubonic  plague  ;  but  the  disregard  of 
the  laws  of  sanitation.  In  like  manner,  sin  is  the  great 
troubler.  It  is  all-important  to  have  true  conceptions 
of  God ;  for  we  need  a  God  of  love  who  pities,  forgives, 
and  cares  for  us.  We  would  not  live  if  we  were  per¬ 
suaded  that  no  one  cared  for  us — not  even  God  Him¬ 
self.  But  God  does  care  for  us ;  and  He  has  urged  us 
to  cast  all  our  care  upon  Him,  because  He  cares  for 
us.  When  in  trouble  or  danger,  we  may  be  tempted 
to  cry  out  like  the  disciples  when  tempest-tossed : 
“Teacher,  carest  thou  not  that  we  perish?” 

I  had  a  vivid  impression  of  that  memorable  night; 
for,  during  my  third  visit,  I  took  the  little  steamer  on 
a  clear  day  when  the  sea  was  without  a  ripple,  and 
we  turned  North  toward  Capernaum.  Within  fifteen 
minutes,  we  were  caught  by  a  violent  gale  and  there  was 
great  excitement.  Terror  was  in  the  faces  of  many, 
and  never  was  I  so  frightened  at  sea;  for  the  boat  was 
small  and  I  knew  not  how  great  the  danger  might  be. 
The  crew  gave  me  no  information,  but  all  was  hurry 
and  confusion  as  they  endeavored  to  remove  the  awn¬ 
ing  that  caught  the  gale  and  threatened  our  safety. 
Suddenly  the  captain  rushed  from  the  wheel  and 
quickly  cut  the  cords  that  the  crew  tried  to  untie.  We 


Silence  Temptation  by  Quoting  the  Bible  121 

were  drenched,  and  longed  for  the  shore.  That  fright¬ 
ful  experience  gave  me  a  most  vivid  and  realistic  im¬ 
pression  of  the  sudden  storm  that  came  upon  the  dis¬ 
ciples  when  they  called  out  to  Jesus  to  rescue  them 
from  the  impending  danger  that  seemed  to  threaten 
their  lives.  Overcome  by  fear,  they  failed  to  trust 
Him  and  they  cried  out  to  Him:  “Teacher,  carest 
thou  not  that  we  perish?”  No  wonder  that  after  He 
had  stilled  the  storm,  He  said  unto  them :  “Why  are 
ye  so  fearful?  Have  ye  not  yet  faith?”  He  had  un¬ 
dertaken  the  greatest  sacrifice  for  them  and  would 
even  go  to  the  cross  for  them  ;  and  hence,  with  such 
proof  that  Christ  did  care  for  them,  how  inexcusable 
was  their  doubt ! 

We  have  in  addition  the  accumulated  evidence  of  all 
the  Christian  centuries — with  the  testimonies  of  the 
twice  born,  who  are  living  examples  that  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation;  and 
hence  we  should  have  faith,  and  not  doubt  the  suprem¬ 
acy  of  Christ.  Because  you  do  not  understand  and 
are  unable  to  explain  some  things  contained  in  the 
Bible,  this  should  in  no  way  lessen  the  value  and  ef¬ 
fectiveness  of  what  you  do  understand  and  believe. 
Hold  firmly  to  these,  and  practise  the  Christian  truths 
and  duties  that  are  so  plain  that  no  one  need  question 
them,  however  unlearned  lie  may  be.  The  blind  son 
whose  sight  Jesus  restored,  was  unable  to  answer  all 
the  questions  that  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin  asked  him  con¬ 
cerning  Jesus,  and  how  He  had  healed  him;  but  that 
did  not  disturb  his  faith  in  Jesus  as  a  divine  healer, 
for  that  rested  upon  the  evidence  of  personal  experi¬ 
ence  with  Jesus. 


122  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

Hence  to  the  wicked  Pharisees  who  sought  to  de¬ 
stroy  the  influence  of  Christ,  the  young  man  replied 
with  a  clear  and  strong  conviction  to  their  false  in¬ 
sinuations  :  “Whether  He  is  a  sinner,  I  know  not ;  one 
thing  I  know,  that  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  can 
see.”  He  had  all  the  evidence  that  was  necessary,  and 
he  demanded  no  further  proof.  Of  all  the  evidences 
urged  in  behalf  of  the  Christian  religion,  none  are  so 
absolutely  soul-satisfying  as  the  evidence  from  per¬ 
sonal  experience.  It  is  personal  conviction  based  upon 
knowledge  gained  from  experience.  No  argument  can 
disturb  it.  It  is  what  we  know  from  self-conscious¬ 
ness — the  basis  of  all  knowledge.  We  need  not  be 
troubled  about  things  that  we  do  not  know;  for  we 
know  enough  to  save  us  without  being  perplexed  about 
the  story  of  Jonah  and  the  whale  or  where  Cain  got 
his  wife.  These  are  not  the  questions  of  supreme  im¬ 
portance,  and  such  as  affect  the  fundamental,  moral, 
and  saving  truths  of  the  Christian  religion. 

We  not  only  encounter  mystery  in  the  Bible,  but 
everywhere.  Not  only  is  God  a  spirit  invisible,  but 
man  also;  for  the  inner  and  real  man  is  as  invisible  as 
God,  and  we  can  know  him  only  from  the  expression 
of  his  thoughts,  feelings,  and  conduct.  The  life  is  also 
invisible  and  a  mystery.  All  the  scientists  of  the  world 
have  not  been  able  to  make  one  grain  of  wheat  that 
will  grow.  They  may  reproduce  one  that  is  so  iden¬ 
tical  in  form  as  to  deceive  the  ordinary  observer;  but 
plant  it,  and  you  will  find  that  it  will  not  germinate; 
for  it  lacks  the  germ  of  life  that  God  alone  can  give 
— He  alone  can  make  the  seed  that  will  grow. 

I  would  correct  a  very  common  false  impression  that 


Silence  Temptation  by  Quoting  the  Bible  l&J 

is  ever  being  repeated  in  public  addresses — that  the 
wheat  taken  from  the  ancient  tombs  of  Egypt,  where 
it  had  been  buried  for  several  thousand  years,  will 
when  planted  in  Egypt,  grow  and  yield  a  harvest.  This 
is  a  mistake.  Such  wheat  will  not  and  never  has  grown 
when  sown ;  for  many  centuries  ago,  the  life  in  the 
wheat  perished.  The  duration  in  every  seed  is  lim¬ 
ited;  and  I  often  have  been  assured  by  the  greatest 
Egyptologists,  including  Maspero  in  the  Cairo  museum, 
that  no  wheat  taken  from  an  ancient  Egyptian  tomb 
will  grow ;  and  yet  men  continue  repeating  this  erro¬ 
neous  impression.  It  is  similar  to  some  of  the  unfor¬ 
tunate  impressions  respecting  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible;  for  they  are  the  result  of  a  false  interpretation; 
and  the  Bible  has  been  made  responsible  for  some  of 
the  strangest  vagaries  of  the  human  mind,  and  most 
extravagant  practices  in  the  name  of  religion. 

When  tempted  to  unbelief  because  of  the  intellectual 
difficulties  of  belief,  remember  that  there  is  no  escape  in 
doubt;  for  unbelief  cannot  provide  a  solution  for  the 
intellectual  difficulties  that  confront  us  when  we  turn 
from  Christian  faith,  but  the  difficulties  increase.  If 
we  believe  in  an  almighty,  all-wise,  and  all-loving  God, 
then  it  is  reasonable  as  well  as  possible  that  God  should 
have  come  in  Christ  to  reconcile  the  world  unto  Him¬ 
self.  We  cannot  deny  the  possibility  of  the  Incarna¬ 
tion,  nor  declare  it  unreasonable  when  we  consider  the 
sacrifice  that  a  mother  will  make  for  one  child,  and 
often  a  very  unworthy  one.  I  never  shall  forget  the 
look  of  agony  that  I  saw  in  the  face  of  the  mother  in 
the  Palais  Justice  in  Paris,  when  she  fell  at  the  feet  of 
her  son  who  had  been  condemned  to  death.  It  was  her 


124  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

child,  though  in  terrible  disgrace;  and  her  love  made 
her  oblivious  to  the  surroundings.  But  will  not  the 
all-loving  God,  our  heavenly  Father  make  an  infinitely 
greater  sacrifice  to  save  the  millions  of  His  children 

O 

who  were  estranged  from  Him,  and  ruined  by  sin? 

God  must  reveal  Himself  to  man  in  Christ  as  a  per¬ 
sonal  Savior,  and  thereby  meet  the  universal  longing 
of  the  human  soul,  as  expressed  by  Philip  when  he 
said  to  Jesus:  “Lord,  show  us  the  Father  and  it  suf- 
ficeth  us.”  Jesus  saith  unto  him:  “Have  I  been  so  long 
time  with  you  and  doest  thou  not  know  Me,  Philip? 
He  that  hath  seen  Me,  hath  seen  the  Father.”  Would 
you  see  and  know  God?  Then  look  into  the  face  of 
Jesus,  who  manifested  the  sympathy,  the  forgiveness, 
and  .boundless  love  of  God.  That  is  the  nearest  and 
clearest  view  of  God ;  for  God  “was  in  Christ  recon¬ 
ciling  the  world  unto  Himself.”  But  some  hesitate 
when  they  read  the  Gospel  account  of  the  supernatural 
birth  of  Jesus ;  but  His  entire  life  was  full  of  the  su¬ 
pernatural.  He  foretold  His  death  and  resurrection  in 
most  explicit  terms,  to  His  disciples  on  the  way  to  Je¬ 
rusalem  ;  and  He  also  gave  the  challenge  to  His  ene¬ 
mies,  that  they  never  forgot,  when  He  said  to  them : 
“Destroy  this  body,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up 
again.”  The  words  made  a  profound  impression  upon 
them,  and  they  remembered  the  challenge  when  His 
dead  body  was  lying  in  the  tomb;  for  they  went  to 
Pilate  and  told  him  so,  in  order  that  the  tomb  might 
be  securely  guarded;  for  they  must  prevent  His  ris¬ 
ing  from  the  dead,  as  He  had  declared  that  He  would 
— or  even  the  semblance  of  a  coming  to  life — and  hence 
they  must  see  to  it  that  His  dead  body  could  not  be 


Silence  Temptation  by  Quoting  the  Bible  125 

removed  from  the  tomb;  and  the  Roman  governor  gave 
them  full  authority  to  make  it  secure. 

But  no  human  power  could  prevent  Christ  from  tri¬ 
umphing  over  death,  and  coming  forth  from  the  sealed 
and  guarded  tomb,  alive  again,  as  He  had  foretold — 
and  He  appeared  unto  many.  Hence  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  supernatural  has  been  associated  with  the  birth 
of  Jesus.  Dr.  Briggs  was  one  of  the  most  cautious  schol¬ 
ars,  and  his  skepticism  led  the  Presbyterian  Assembly 
to  depose  him  from  the  ministry ;  and  yet  Dr.  Briggs 
found  no  difficulty  with  the  Incarnation.  He  wrote 
that:  “Christian  scholars  as  a  body  are  not  at  all 
dubious  as  to  the  Virgin  Birth.  Biblical  and  historical 
scholars  are  just  as  decided  in  its  maintenance  as  the 
dogmatic  theologians.  They  cannot  possibly  recognize 
that  the  birth  of  Christ  was  by  ordinary  human  gener¬ 
ation. — It  would  turn  back  the  dial  of  Christianity 
two  thousand  years ;  it  would  break  with  historic  Chris¬ 
tianity  and  its  Apostolic  foundation,  and  imperil  Chris¬ 
tianity  itself.” 

When  tempted  to  lose  faith  in  God’s  goodness  and 
loving  care,  then  turn  and  look  unto  “Jesus,  the  author 
and  perfector  of  our  faith,  who  for  the  joy  that  was 
set  before  Him,  endured  the  cross,  despising  shame; 
and  hath  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  For  con¬ 
sider  Him  that  hath  endured  such  gainsaying  of  sin¬ 
ners  against  Himself,  that  ye  wax  not  weary,  fainting 
in  your  souls.  Ye  have  not  resisted  unto  blood”  as 
Jesus  did. 

Never  did  defeat  seem  more  certain  than  when  the 
teachings  and  works  of  Jesus  culminated  in  His  most 
cruel  and  shameful  death  on  the  cross.  It  was  the  hour 


126  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

of  triumph  for  His  enemies,  who  for  weeks  had  con¬ 
spired  for  His  death.  Now  they  were  exceeding  bold 
as  they  stood  about  the  cross  and  flung  defiance  in 
His  face,  mocking  Him  with  the  challenge  to  come 
down  from  the  cross  and  they  would  believe  on  Him — 
although  they  would  not  have  believed  on  Him,  for 
many  of  them  refused  to  believe  on  Him  even  when  He 
arose  from  the  dead.  Graetz,  the  Jewish  historian, 
writes  in  his  history  of  the  Jews  that  Jesus  is  “the 
only  mortal  of  whom  one  can  say  without  exaggeration 
that  His  death  was  more  effective  than  His  life.  Gol¬ 
gotha  became  to  the  civilized  world  a  new  Sinai.” 
Graetz,  as  a  historian,  should  have  given  the  philoso¬ 
phy  for  this  unique  fact  of  history ;  for  he  could  have 
found  the  reason  in  the  words  of  Jesus  Himself,  when 
He  said,  “And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  Myself.”  It  is  the  attractive  power 
of  that  matchless  sacrifice  which  showed  the  boundless 
love  of  God  and  transformed  the  despised  cross  into 
the  most  precious  and  hallowed  symbol  of  Christendom. 
But  had  Christ  not  risen  from  the  dead,  as  He  fore¬ 
told,  then  the  hopes  of  the  disciples  would  forever  have 
been  nailed  to  the  despised  cross,  and  buried  in  the 
tomb. 

It  is  the  risen  and  ever-living  Christ  that  made  His 
death  on  the  cross  so  marvelously  effective.  It  was 
the  overpowering  mastery  of  the  risen  Christ  that  filled 
His  disciples  with  impassioned  love,  and  sent  them 
forth  like  the  immortals  with  more  than  imperial  power, 
to  conquer  the  world  for  Christ. 

Once  the  haughty  and  enraged  Pharisees,  with  with¬ 
ering  scorn,  silenced  the  father  of  the  hoy  whom  Jesus 


Silence  Temptation  oy  Quoting  the  Bible  127 

had  healed.  In  contempt  they  replied  to  the  father : 
“Are  ye  also  led  astray?  Hath  any  of  the  rulers 
believed  oil  Him — or  of  the  Pharisees?  They  said 
it  with  a  defiant  challenge,  for  it  was  true  then ;  but 
how  differently  subsequent  history  has  answered  them; 
for  the  greatest  rulers  of  the  world  bow  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus  and  acknowledge  him  as  the  King  of  kings,  and 
the  Lord  of  all.  Even  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gen¬ 
tiles  would  no  longer  write :  “For  behold  your  calling 
- — that  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble  are  called.” 
To-day  are  found  in  the  Church  of  Christ  the  leading 
royal  families,  the  greatest  rulers,  distinguished  states¬ 
men,  judges,  educators,  scientists,  philanthropists,  re¬ 
formers  and  the  leaders  in  every  department  of  human 
endeavor  for  the  social  and  religious  betterment  of 
mankind.  Even  the  Jews  have  seen  that  Pilate  was  more 
than  right  when  he  dictated  the  inscription  for  the 
cross,  “Jesus  of  Nazareth,  king  of  the  Jews,”  and  that 
he  was  justified  in  refusing  to  change  it  when  their 
fathers  protested;  for  it  appeared  that  Jesus  was 
really  a  king,  not  only  of  the  Jews,  but  he  became 
King  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  of  the  greatest  nations 
on  earth.  When  the  chief  priests  threatened  the  Ro¬ 
man  governor  that  if  he  released  Jesus  he  was  not 
Caesar’s  friend,  Pilate  yielded  against  all  his  convic¬ 
tions  of  justice,  for  he  feared  the  will  of  the  mob  and 
the  power  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius  at  Rome,  who  was 
the  supreme  potentate -of  earth  at  the  time;  but  to¬ 
day  no  one  is  influenced  by  that  name,  whilst  hundreds 
of  millions  acknowledge  Christ  Jesus  as  their  Lord  and 
Master. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


OUlt  TRIALS 

THE  trials  of  life  are  many  and  varied.  Whilst  no 
one  can  hope  to  escape  them  all,  we  often  become 
responsible  for  many  that  we  bring  upon  ourselves 
through  our  own  folly  and  indiscretion.  Many  suffer 
and  complain  of  hard  times  and  insufficient  income 
whilst  they  ape  the  rich  instead  of  living  within  their 
means.  It  would  be  far  better  to  avoid  the  installment 
plan,  to  pay  as  they  go,  to  be  honest  and  happy,  than 
pretend  to  be  what  they  are  not.  The  installment  plan 
has  proved  a  curse  to  many  and  has  led  them  into 
temptation  that  made  them  bankrupt,  dishonest,  and 
unhappy  through  their  extravagant  living  of  super¬ 
ficial  and  unreal  lives.  Some  earnings  should  be  put 
in  the  bank  for  a  rainy  day,  but  no  working  man  can 
afford  to  put  it  in  the  saloon.  If  you  cannot  live  on 
a  little  less  than  your  income  when  able  to  work,  how 
will  you  live  when  out  of  work?  Plain  living,  with  right 
thinking,  would  bring  health  and  happiness,  and  “God¬ 
liness  with  contentment  is  great  gain.”  We  make  our¬ 
selves  miserable  by  envying  the  portion  of  others,  and 
not  trying  to  make  the  most  of  our  situation  and  op¬ 
portunity.  Instead  of  fretting  our  lives  away  with 
envy  and  making  ourselves,  as  well  as  our  friends,  mis¬ 
erable  by  our  follies  in  high  living,  it  would  be  infi- 

128 


Our  Trials 


129 


nitely  wiser  and  better  to  avoid  useless  extravagance 
and  to  use  more  common  sense,  for  often  it  will  go 
much  farther  than  dollars.  It  is  very  expensive  to 
ape  the  ways  of  the  rich.  Why  buy  crackers  put  up 
in  fancy  packages  at  the  rate  of  thirty  cents  a  pound 
when  you  can  get  equal  food  value  in  bulk  for  fifteen 
cents  a  pound?  Recognize  the  worth  of  what  you  can 
save,  for  much  goes  to  waste  in  the  kitchens  of  the 
poor.  It  takes  good  sense  and  efficiency  to  economize 
in  preparing  a  good  meal,  and  good  sense  and  efficiency 
go  farther  than  dollars.  It  is  the  lack  of  these  quali¬ 
ties  that  causes  so  much  poverty.  Ignorance  is  a  great 
waster  and  stupidity  can  neither  economize  nor  cook 
a  good  meal — even  with  abundance. 

There  is  much  delusion  as  to  the  high  cost  of  living 
in  our  country  and  the  cheapness  of  living  in  Europe. 
The  fact  is  that  the  necessaries  of  life  cost  more  in 
France,  Germany,  and  Great  Britain — before  the  war 
— than  in  the  United  States,  and  the  conditions  of  liv¬ 
ing  on  the  same  amount  were  decidedly  better  in  our 
country.  Fuel,  meat,  flour,  vegetables,  and  fruit  cost  us 
less.  There  is  no  country  where  men  get  so  much  money 
for  their  labor  and  where  they  can  get  so  much  for 
their  money  as  in  the  United  States.  They  get  much 
more  pay  for  service  and  they  live  much  better  than  the 
laboring  class  in  Europe.  That  is  why  more  than  a 
million  foreigners  come  to  our  country  in  a  single  year. 
It  was  because  they  could  live  much  better  in  the 
United  States  than  they  could  in  their  own  country. 
Unfortunately,  with  greatly  increased  pay,  some  of 
them  adopt  the  extravagant  ways  of  the  Americans, 
for  they  are  not  satisfied  to  live  the  life  of  self-denial 


130  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

that  characterized  their  homes  in  Europe.  By  the 
necessaries  of  life  I  do  not  include  intoxicating  drinks, 
and  yet  the  most  careful  estimate  has  placed  the 
amount  of  money  expended  annually  in  our  country  for 
liquor  at  the  enormous  sum  of  more  than  one  and  a 
half  billion  dollars,  besides  sending  to  prison  eighty 
per  cent  of  its  inmates.  The  money  spent  for  tobacco 
exceeds  one  billion  dollars,  and  tobacco  is  not  one  of 
the  necessaries  of  life.  What  an  astounding  waste 
without  gain,  but  at  the  unspeakable  sacrifice  of  health, 
happiness,  and  the  many  comforts  of  life.  Surely  the 
working  class  cannot  afford  to  contribute  their  earn¬ 
ings  to  this  terrible  waste  of  strong  drink,  but  they 
do,  and  having  worse  than  wasted  their  money,  they 
strike  for  higher  pay  and  raise  the  cry  of  hard  times ! 
But  who  made  them?  They  have  not  learned  the  worth 
of  what  we  save.  What  a  tremendous  gain  it  would 
be  if,  instead  of  making  their  daily  contribution  to 
the  saloon,  they  were  to  deposit  in  the  savings  bank 
and  take  out  a  life  insurance  policy  so  that  the  family 
would  not  be  left  in  want  in  case  of  accident.  Not  only 
does  drink  affect  the  health  whilst  wasting  the  earn¬ 
ings,  but  it  increases  the  liability  to  accident  and  fi¬ 
nally  becomes  a  barrier  against  life  insurance  protec¬ 
tion.  Dr.  E.  L.  Fiske,  an  authority  on  vital  statistics 
and  hygiene,  declares  that  “The  application  of  a  per¬ 
son  suspected  of  being  seriously  tainted  with  liquor  is 
never  knowingly  accepted  in  standard  forms  of  insur¬ 
ance  by  any  company.” 

We  often  would  do  well  to  take  a  careful  inventor}' 
of  all  that  we  are  and  have ;  not  merely  our  posses¬ 
sions  in  real  estate  and  personal  property,  but  of  our 


Our  Trials 


131 


own  individual  character,  our  faults  and  vices — as  well 
as  our  virtues — our  opportunities  and  what  we  have 
done  with  them :  whether  we  are  satisfied  with  our  own 
accounting,  or  whether  we  shall  not  determine  to  turn 
over  a  new  leaf  and  do  better.  We  must  decide  for  our¬ 
selves,  for  we  have  not  done  our  best,  but  have  at  times 
been  our  own  worst  enemies. 

“Judge  not  according  to  appearance,  but  judge 
righteous  judgment,”  is  a  divine  precaution  that  we 
would  do  well  to  observe,  for  we  often  are  mistaken  in 
our  judgments.  Things  are  not  always  what  they 
seem.  Even  the  human  face  often  is  but  a  disguise 
of  the  inner  man  and  it  is  because  of  this  false  guise 
and  pretext  in  speech  that  we  are  deceived  so  easily. 
We  have  a  striking  example  of  erroneous  judgment 
in  the  days  of  the  prophet  Malachi,  for  when  the  faith¬ 
ful  ones  suffered  from  grievous  trials  and  saw  the  tem¬ 
porary  prosperity  of  the  wicked,  they  were  tempted 
to  lose  faith  in  God’s  justice  as  they  muttered  their 
complaints  that  seemed  justified  by  the  inequalities 
of  the  people :  “It  is  vain  to  serve  God ;  and  what 
profit  is  it  that  we  have  kept  His  charge,  and  that  we 
have  walked  mournfully  before  Jehovah  of  hosts?  and 
now  we  call  the  proud,  happy ;  yea,  they  that  work 
wickedness  are  built  up;  yea,  they  tempt  God  and  es¬ 
cape.”  They  saw  not  the  end  when  all  would  be  re¬ 
versed  ;  when  the  proud  and  wicked  would  be  as  stubble, 
and  the  faithful  no  longer  suffer  from  the  scourge  of 
their  enemies. 

There  is  this  insidious  temptation  that  comes  to 
many  when  suffering  severe  trials:  “If  God  is  Almighty 
and  our  Heavenly  Father  and  loves  us  as  his  children, 


132  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

why  then,  does  he  not  come  to  our  relief  when  suffer¬ 
ing  wrongs?  Why  does  he  permit  sin  to  enter  the 
world ;  why  does  he  allow  sin  to  overcome  us  and  evil¬ 
doers  to  tempt  and  to  wrong  us?”  It  is  the  old  and 
familiar  challenge  that  Satan  put  to  Jesus  when  he 
hungered  in  the  wilderness :  “If  thou  art  the  Son  of 
God,  command  that  these  stones  become  bread.”  Thrice 
did  the  tempter  challenge  Jesus  to  give  supernatural 
proof  of  his  divine  claims,  but  He  yielded  not  to  the 
plausible  argument. 

Many  still  wonder  why  God  does  not  compel  men  to 
believe,  and  some  wish  that  He  would  force  the  doubter 
and  indifferent  one  to  assent  by  overwhelming  them 
with  some  irresistible  influence.  Jesus  was  challenged 
by  the  evil  one  to  give  some  startling  exhibition  of  His 
superhuman  power  in  Jerusalem  that  would  bring  the 
will  of  the  beholders  into  subjection  and  leave  no  pos¬ 
sibility  of  doubt.  But  Jesus  would  not  confound  His 
adversaries  by  overawing  their  disbelief  by  some  spec¬ 
tacular  display  of  divine  power  and  compel  their  faith 
and  obedience  against  their  will.  God  never  coerces 
a  man  against  his  will  and  reason,  for  such  a  subjec¬ 
tion  of  the  will  would  be  a  violation  of  human  freedom 
and  by  leaving  no  free  and  untrammeled  exercise  of  the 
will,  there  would  be  no  moral  character  in  our  actions. 
If  freedom  of  thought  were  stifled,  man  would  be  dis¬ 
franchised,  and  without  unrestrained  freedom  of  choice, 
our  conduct  would  be  determined  for  us.  God  employs 
no  force  but  He  reasons  with  us  and  wins  us  by  the 
power  of  His  love,  for  His  followers  are  not  slaves,  but 
free,  and  He  wants  their  loving  hearts  for  service.  He 
says :  “Come,  let  us  reason  together :”  “Son,  give  me 


Our  Trials 


133 


thine  heart “Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock : 
if  any  man  hear  My  voice  and  open  the  door,  I  will 
come  in  to  him,  and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  Me.” 
But  He  never  will  force  an  entrance,  nor  paralyze  the 
human  will  into  subjection.  That  is  not  the  divine 
method  and  when  overzealous  bigots  in  the  church  re¬ 
sorted  to  persecution,  they  departed  from  the  teach¬ 
ings  and  spirit  of  our  divine  Master,  who  said:  “He 
that  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely.”  The 
human  will  is  our  highest  prerogative,  and  since  God 
respects  its  rights,  no  man  has  a  right  to  violate  its 
prerogatives  by  employing  force,  for  might  does  not 
make  right,  or  else  there  would  be  no  ethical  standard, 
but  it  would  be  variable  according  to  the  changing  cir¬ 
cumstances  that  brought  the  different  parties  into 


power. 

When  in  the  minority,  right  has  not  always  been  able 
to  assert  itself  so  as  to  receive  justice,  but  often  has 
been  sentenced  to  the  stake  by  misguided  and  cruel 
men  in  power,  since  there  have  been  times  when  right 
eous  men  were  powerless  to  vindicate  their  rights  be¬ 
cause  of  the  peculiar  circumstances,  and  the  verdict 
of  those  in  authority  was  that  justice  had  triumphed, 
although  it  had  been  trampled  in  the  dust. 

When  Jesus  had  been  nailed  to  the  cross,  His  ene¬ 
mies — with  boastful  defiance  hurled  the  challenge 
against  Him:  “If  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  come 
down  from  the  cross.  .  .  .  Let  Him  now  come  down 
from  the  cross  and  we  will  believe  on  Him.”  He  could 
not  accept  the  challenge,  for  it  would  have  defeated 
the  supreme  purpose  for  which  He  came  into  the  world : 
“to  save  sinners,”  and  that  way  led  to  the  cross,  and 


134  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

He  could  not  abandon  his  mission  and  thereby  frus¬ 
trate  the  will  of  Him  who  sent  him.  “For  God  so  loved 
the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Him  might  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life.”  They  said,  “He  saved  others,”  and 
that  was  true,  but  he  would  save  all  men  by  the  sac¬ 
rifice  of  Himself,  and  therefore  He  could  not  save  Him¬ 
self  by  coming  down  from  the  cross.  Christ  foresaw 
it  all  long  before  he  reached  Calvary,  and  He  foretold 
the  world-wide  attractive  power  of  the  cross  through 
the  centuries  when  He  said :  “And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Myself.”  That 
suffering  and  death  on  the  cross  is  the  hope  of  hu¬ 
manity,  and  no  symbol  is  so  precious  in  meaning,  and  so 
sacred  to  Christendom  as  the  cross,  for  it  tells  of  God’s 
boundless  love  and  man’s  redemption. 

We  must  not  blame  the  Lord  for  the  evil  doings  of 
men,  nor  say  that  human  history  has  been  made  such 
as  it  has  been  by  the  will  of  God.  Human  beings  must 
not  be  looked  upon  merely  as  so  many  automatons, 
and  all  the  doings  of  mankind  in  which  all  men  are  ac¬ 
tively  engaged  merely  as  a  sort  of  Punch  and  Judy 
show  on  a  world-wide  scale  and  without  any  indi¬ 
vidual  choice,  but  each  one  responding  to  the  irresist¬ 
ible  will  of  the  Supreme  Superintendent.  If  such  were 
the  case,  then  wre  might  make  the  Almighty  responsible 
for  all  the  wrongs  and  crimes  committed  against  the 
innocent  and  for  the  appalling  slaughter  of  the  Euro¬ 
pean  War.  These  were  not  caused  by  the  will  of  God, 
but  by  the  will  of  selfish  and  wicked  men.  Had  they 
followed  the  teachings  and  spirit  of  Christ,  then  the 
world  wTould  have  been  spared  the  unspeakable  calamity 


Our  Trials 


135 


of  this  most  unnatural,  unreasonable,  mad,  and  disas¬ 
trous  war  of  all  history,  for  it  has  not  one  redeeming 
or  justifiable  feature,  and  all  the  possible  good  that 
may  result  from  it  might  easily  have  been  accomplished 
without  this  shocking  destruction  of  life  and  property. 

We  must  not  exaggerate  our  trials,  nor  minimize  and 
lose  sight  of  the  blessings  that  remain.  We  may  be 
suffering  from  sickness  or  the  infirmities  of  old  age, 
and  our  time  on  earth  may  be  short,  but  then  we  must 
contemplate  the  blessed  eternal  inheritance  that  awaits 
us,  and  where  neither  sickness,  pain,  nor  sorrow  can 
affect  us.  We  often  should  bring  that  heavenly  home 
into  view  and  contemplate  its  uninterrupted  joys  when 
suffering  most  from  the  trials  of  this  earthly  life. 

We  must  not  interpret  the  character  and  ways  of 
God,  for  no  one  has  been  so  misunderstood  and  so  mis¬ 
represented  as  God,  our  heavenly  Father.  Many  have 
attributed  their  terrible  afflictions  to  His  anger,  instead 
of  viewing  Him  in  His  loving  attitude,  and  with  infinite 
love  and  mercy,  ready  to  sustain  and  comfort  through 
the  eternal  Spirit.  But  they  lose  sight  of  the  true  God, 
and  convert  Him  into  an  enemy  who  has  caused  all 
their  trouble,  and  they  repeat  the  lamentation  of  the 
prophet  of  old :  “Behold,  and  see  if  there  be  any  sor¬ 
row  like  unto  my  sorrow,  which  is  brought  upon  me, 
wherewith  Jehovah  afflicted  me  in  the  day  of  his  fierce 
anger.”  We  must  not  make  God  responsible  for  the 
sins  of  men,  for  the  wrongs  that  they  have  done  us, 
nor  blame  Him  for  the  misfortunes  that  we  have 
brought  upon  ourselves,  for  often  our  troubles  would 
be  much  more  grievous  had  it  not  been  for  the  gracious 
influence  of  our  loving  God,  who  checked  us  by  his  ap- 


136  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

peals  through  our  conscience.  It  is  true  that  even  at 
our  best,  it  is  “Of  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am.” 
Matters  would  have  been  much  worse  without  His  sov¬ 
ereign  care.  He  never  forsook  us,  even  when  we  turned 
from  Him,  and  often  we  were  restrained  by  the  echo 
of  His  voice  through  our  conscience. 

There  are  many  experiences  that  try  men’s  souls, 
and  it  is  not  strange  that  we  at  times  should  be  sorely 
perplexed  by  the  many  dark  and  trying  problems  of 
our  lives  that  we  cannot  reconcile  with  God’s  loving 
care.  But  we  must  not  try  to  explain  mysterious  pro¬ 
vidences,  for  no  man  can,  and  we  only  make  matters 
worse,  and  the  difficulties  greater,  in  addition  to  mis¬ 
representing  God,  our  heavenly  Father,  who  sees  us 
in  our  relation  to  the  eternal  future  and  with  whom  a 
thousand  years  are  as  one  day,  and  one  day  as  a  thou¬ 
sand  years.  He  does  not  inspire  the  evil  doer  with 
designs  against  us,  though  He  does  not  prevent  it,  but 
when  even  the  worst  calamities  threaten  to  overwhelm 
us,  then  He  will  sustain  and  comfort  us  until  we  reach 
the  haven  of  heavenly  rest. 

Joseph  knew  that  his  brothers  were  against  him  and 
that  Potiphar’s  wife  sought  to  corrupt  and  destroy 
him,  but  he  maintained  his  integrity,  though  it  caused 
him  to  languish  in  prison  for  the  infamous  wrongs  of 
another.  But  he  despaired  not,  and  he  was  convinced 
that  God  was  with  him  and,  in  due  time,  he  was  deliv¬ 
ered  from  prison  and  exalted  to  a  place  of  honor  and 
great  responsibility  in  the  government  of  Egypt. 

Hagar  felt  sure,  after  she  had  been  cast  out  of  her 
home  with  her  child,  that  her  name  must  perish,  and 
that  Ishmael  would  die  in  the  desert.  With  a  sad  heart 


Our  Trials 


137 


of  despair,  she  turned  away  her  face  and  wept.  But 
God  saw  otherwise  and  he  changed  her  mind  when  his 
angel  called  out  of  heaven  unto  her  and  said:  “What 
aileth  thee,  Hagar?”  He  pointed  out  the  way  of  hope 
and  escape,  and  she  started  upon  the  journey  that 
made  a  history. 

Many  have  been  tried  severely  by  meeting  with  some 
great  disappointment  on  the  very  threshold  of  life,  and 
some  have  failed  in  the  encounter,  but  others  despaired 
not,  and  with  faith  and  indomitable  perseverance,  they 
succeeded.  I  will  mention  a  few  conspicuous  exam¬ 
ples  of  those  who  triumphed  over  great  difficulties. 
Rev.  Dr.  George  Matheson  was  a  brilliant  student  when 
in  Glasgow  University  and  carried  off  the  distinguished 
honors.  His  future  was  bright  because  of  his  superior 
intellectual  powers  and  oratorical  ability  that  would 
ensure  him  leadership  in  the  pulpit  of  his  country.  Un¬ 
fortunately  his  eyes  had  been  affected  from  early  child¬ 
hood  by  an  internal  inflammation,  and  in  spite  of  this 
handicap  in  his  studies,  he  won  the  prizes  and  grad¬ 
uated  with  honor  at  the  early  age  of  twenty,  but  he 
then  became  totally  blind.  That  calamity  seemed  to¬ 
tally  to  eclipse  his  brilliant  career,  and  many  would 
have  abandoned  all  hope  and  lost  faith  in  God,  but  this 
young  man  was  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  the 
love  of  God,  and  in  liis  soul  he  saw  Him  who  was  in¬ 
visible.  His  faith  did  not  fail  him,  and  a  few  months 
after  graduating  in  the  University  he  entered  the  Di¬ 
vinity  Hall,  and  in  due  time  graduated  in  theology, 
entered  the  ministry,  and  besides  being  an  author,  he 
became  the  greatest  preacher  in  Scotland.  He  was 
greatly  assisted  in  his  work  by  his  devoted  sister,  for 


138  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

he  never  married.  He  is  the  author  of  the  precious 
hymn : 


“0  Love  that  will  not  let  me  go, 

I  rest  my  weary  soul  in  Thee ! 

I  give  Thee  back  the  life  I  owe, 

That  in  Thine  ocean  depths  its  flow, 

May  richer,  fuller,  be. 

“O  Cross  that  liftest  up  my  head, 

I  dare  not  ask  to  fly  from  Thee ! 

I  lay  in  dust,  life’s  glory  dead, 

And  from  the  ground  there  blossoms  red 
Life  that  shall  endless  be.” 

Who  can  estimate  the  influence  for  good  that  this 
blind  preacher  and  author  exerted?  This  hymn  alone 
is  sufficient  to  immortalize  him,  and  many  who  have 
been  blessed  by  it,  thank  heaven  for  this  consecrated 
life.  How  great  the  loss  had  he  yielded  to  despondency 
and  done  nothing  because  he  could  not  see.  There  have 
been  other  eminent  blind  preachers  and  hymn  writers. 
Fanny  J.  Crosby  wrote  eight  thousand  hymns,  and 
through  the  singing  of  her  hymns,  thousands  have  been 
led  to  see  Jesus  by  the  eye  of  faith.  She  was  blind, 
but  she,  too,  saw  him  who  is  invisible  and  no  wonder 
she  wrote  that  precious  hymn:  Safe  in  the  Arms  of 
Jesus. 

Prescott  and  Parkman  suffered  from  defective  eyes 
that  often  gave  them  excruciating  pain,  but  they  per¬ 
severed  and  acquired  national  and  international  renown 
as  historians.  They  summoned  all  their  will  power, 


Our  Trials 


139 


and  pursued  their  purpose  amid  disappointment  and 
pain,  and  their  noble  achievements  made  the  world 
richer  and  placed  us  all  under  lasting  gratitude.  Lofty 
ideals  and  supreme  motives  to  achieve  a  noble  purpose 
have  enabled  men  to  triumph  over  almost  insurmount¬ 
able  difficulties  and  the  men  who  never  tried  are  respon¬ 
sible  for  their  wasted  lives. 

We  easily  fail  in  our  estimate  of  the  relative  pros¬ 
perity  of  men  because  of  our  lack  of  knowledge  as  to 
the  real  blessings  of  life,  and  our  tendency  to  place 
fictitious  values  to  certain  semblances  of  prosperity 
which  consist  in  ephemeral  appearances  only.  In¬ 
stinctively  people  place  a  great  value  upon  wealth  as 
though  it  were  the  sine  qua  non ,  and  in  order  to  get 
money,  some  are  tempted  to  sacrifice  themselves,  though 
with  bitter  regrets  they  learn  later  that  personal  honor 
and  happiness  were  given  for  the  exchange.  Then  all 
realize  their  disastrous  mistake  as — with  bitter  re¬ 
morse — they  suffer  the  terrible  penalty  of  dishonesty. 

Wealth  is  not  a  synonym  for  all  else.  Its  purchas¬ 
ing  power  is  limited,  as  well  as  the  soul  satisfaction  that 
it  can  give,  and  people  are  greatly  mistaken  when  they 
think  that  just  because  a  man  is  rich  ‘die  has  all  that 
heart  and  soul  can  wish.”  Wealth  cannot  secure  youth, 
beauty  and  health  when  gone,  nor  can  it  buy  learning, 
efficiency,  moral  character,  self  respect,  peace  of  mind, 
an  approving  conscience — the  highest  joys  possible  in 
this  life — and  the  hope  of  the  life  to  come.  “The  can¬ 
dle  of  the  wicked  shall  be  put  out.”  The  tables  shall 
then  be  turned. 

The  wicked  do  not  get  the  most  even  out  of  this  life, 
and  it  is  false  to  say  that  man  cannot  succeed  in  busi- 


140  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

ness  by  honest  methods,  as  though  righteous  business 
men  were  doomed  to  pauperism.  Business  men  do  not 
fail  because  they  were  honest  but  because  of  peculiar  cir¬ 
cumstances  that  arose,  or  because  they  lacked  efficiency 
and  business  sagacity.  Many  poor  men  have  become 
rich  because  of  their  keen  business  discernment,  econ¬ 
omy,  and  strict  adherence  to  scrupulous  principles,  and 
not  by  fraudulent  methods.  They  knew  what  and  when 
to  buy,  what  to  manufacture  and  where  to  invest  their 
money.  They  bought  real  estate  that  made  them  rich, 
whilst  another,  lacking  foresight,  invested  in  property 
that  made  him  poor.  It  was  not  because  the  successful 
investor  was  less  pious  than  the  unsuccessful  one,  but 
because  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  buy  property  in 
the  right  locality.  Every  mine  prospector  does  not 
strike  a  gold  mine;  the  great  majority  fail,  but  not 
because  of  their  moral  character.  So  it  is  in  the  com¬ 
mercial  world,  for  like  inventive  genius,  shrewdness  or 
foresight  in  business  seems  to  be  instinctive  in  some, 
and  absent  in  others.  It  is  a  native  endowment — well 
cultivated — and  there  is  no  more  sin  in  succeeding  than 
there  is  virtue  in  pauperism.  We  must  use  the  gifts 
that  God  has  given  us,  but  not  abuse  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  are  not  to  despise  wealth,  for 
it  is  a  power  for  good  as  well  as  for  evil,  but  the  love 
of  money  is  a  root  of  all  kinds  of  eviL  Therefore,  the 
apostle  charges  “Them  that  are  rich  in  this  present 
world,  that  they  be  not  high-minded,  nor  have  thcii 
hope  set  on  the  uncertainty  of  riches,  but  on  God,  who 
giveth  us  richly  all  things' to  enjoy;  that  they  do  good, 
that  they  be  rich  in  good  works,  that  they  be  ready  to 
distribute,  willing  to  communicate,  laying  up  in  store 


Our  Trials 


141 


for  themselves  a  good  foundation  against  the  time  to 
come,  that  they  may  lay  hold  on  the  life  which  is  life 
indeed.” 

Many  of  the  foremost  men  of  influence  in  every  pe¬ 
riod  of  the  world’s  history  have  been  poor  in  this 
world’s  goods,  and  yet  they  proved  themselves  benefac¬ 
tors  of  mankind.  Wealth  is  not  the  only  standard  by 
which  to  estimate  the  greatness  of  men  and  their  worth 
to  human  society.  Wealth  is  no  barrier  but  an  ines¬ 
timable  asset  with  which  to  bless  humanity  if  properly 
acquired  and  used,  and  no  one  should  speak  lightly  of 
wealth  as  a  power  for  good,  but  it  also  entails  an  awlul 
responsibility.  However,  there  have  been  many  great 
benefactors,  educators,  and  statesmen  who  could  make 
no  claim  to  wealth,  but  they  were  rich  in  service  and 
good  works,  and  the  world  calls  them  blessed.  It  is  a 
grievous  mistake  that  possesses  the  mind  of  so  many 
that  the  supreme  purpose  and  goal  of  a  successful  life 
is  the  acquirement  of  wealth,  merely  for  personal  plea¬ 
sure  and  gratification ;  but  that  is  supreme  selfishness 
and  has  nothing  to  commend  it,  and  deserves  condemna¬ 
tion  only.  Neither  can  such  enjoy  the  high  satisfac¬ 
tion  possible  in  life.  To  serve  God  and  our  fellow 
men  is  the  highest  ideal,  and  such  as  do,  get  the  most 
out  of  life. 

The  lives  of  many  have  been  wrecked  because  they 
determined  to  seek  riches  at  any  cost.  Some  ventured 
all  on  a  gamble  and  lost  all.  The  same  spirit  has  led 
to  dishonesty  and  disgrace.  One  of  the  well  known 
scholars  of  India  informs  us  that  there  are  more  than 
three  hundred  millions  of  gods  in  that  country  and 
everywhere  we  were  reminded  that  India  was  a  rich  par- 


142  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

adise  for  the  gods,  though  millions  of  human  beings 
have  perished  from  the  disastrous  famines  that  have 
visited  that  deplorable  country.  All  their  countless 
gods  are  unable  to  help  them,  although  their  Pantheon 
contains  vastly  more  than  all  the  gods  of  ancient 
Greece  and  Rome.  We  have  no  polytheism  in  this 
country  but  the  people  of  no  age  or  country  were  ever 
more  devoted  to  their  chief  god  than  the  people  of 
America  are  devoted — soul  and  body — to  the  god  ol 
money.  The  children  of  Israel  worshipped  the  golden 
calf  at  Sinai  not  long  after  their  deliverance  from 
Egyptian  bondage,  but  the  god  of  greatest  attraction 
among  us  consists  of  the  same  material,  though  not  in 
the  same  form.  For  this  god  many  men  and  women 
will  sacrifice  all,  even  themselves.  For  it,  they  will 
give  time,  service,  influence,  honor,  and  moral  charac¬ 
ter.  Such  a  supreme  place  this  god  has  in  the  mind 
of  the  American  people.  Hence  the  false  standards  of 
men  and  their  subsequent  fall  into  temptation,  for  they 
live  and  do  as  they  think,  and  no  man  rises  higher 
than  his  ideals.  I  have  been  amazed  to  hear  men 
express  themselves  as  though  money  were  the  supreme 
standard  of  values  and  even  contend  that  the  worth  of 
every  man  in  the  community  was  to  be  determined  by 
his  earning  capacity  in  money,  and  that  the  man  who 
can  get  a  salar}^  of  three  thousand  dollars  is  worth 
three  times  as  much  as  the  one  who  receives  one  thou¬ 
sand  dollars  a  year.  Whilst  this  may  be  true  in  the 
commercial  world,  it  is  unfortunate  that  any  man 
should  be  so  utterly  lacking  in  his  moral  perspective 
for  estimating  the  true  values  of  life  as  to  be  so  blind 
to  the  inestimable  virtues  of  humanity  that  alone  can 


Our  Trials 


143 


make  a  people  great,  but  the  value  of  which  cannot  be 
expressed  in  dollars  and  cents.  They  were  the  men 
who  did  their  duty  and  who  did  not  count  the  cost. 
They  are  the  world’s  benefactors,  though  they  amassed 
no  fortune  but  were  poor.  All  the  world  is  under  a 
debt  of  gratitude  to  Pasteur,  whose  unselfish  labors  and 
discoveries  saved  many  millions  of  lives,  but  no  thinking 
man  would  say  that  his  income  was  the  standard  of  his 
worth. 

We  must  judge  nothing  before  the  time  nor  by  the 
mere  outward  appearance,  for  things  are  not  always  as 
they  seem.  That  many  have  been  born  with  a  for¬ 
tune  has  proved  their  misfortune.  It  meant  indulgence 
and  a  wasted  life.  Recently  a  millionaire  young  man 
who  had  spent  his  time  in  riotous  living  became  so  ut¬ 
terly  disgusted  with  his  life  that  he  ended  it  by  a 
suicidal  act.  Poverty  and  adversity  often  have  meant 
a  life  of  usefulness  and  honor  for  a  struggling  poor  boy 
who  became  a  benefactor  of  mankind.  The  vast  ma¬ 
jority  among  the  leaders  of  men  came  from  a  humble 
origin.  They  struggled  against  adverse  circumstance^ 
and  they  were  made  strong  and  became  leaders  of  men 
and  masters  of  finance. 

Do  not  say  that  fate  was  against  you  and  that — 
with  your  limited  faculties  and  adverse  circumstances 
— you  were  doomed  to  defeat,  for  you  are  mistaken. 
Can  you  conceive  of  a  more  unfortunate  child  than 
Helen  Keller  P  She  was  deprived  of  more  than  two 
senses,  for  not  only  was  she  deaf  and  blind,  but  her 
power  of  speech  was  undeveloped ;  but  she  won  out  in 
the  struggle  for  knowledge  by  taking  the  first  honor 
when  she  graduated  in  Radcliffe  College  at  Cambridge. 


144  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

Insuperable  difficulties  beset  her  way  and  she  seemed 
completely  hedged  in,  but  read  the  startling  history  of 
her  life  and  see  how  she  triumphed!  Read  her  book¬ 
let  on  Optimism , — a  strange  subject  for  her, — and  it 
seems  like  a  revelation  emanating  from  one  hedged  in 
as  she  has  been.  If  ever  a  woman  seemed  justified  in 
being  a  pessimist,  she  was  the  one,  and  yet  she  became 
an  optimist.  Surely  when  you  contrast  your  condi¬ 
tion  with  hers,  you  can  find  no  justification  for  being  a 
pessimist. 

Read  the  little  book  entitled  Mrs.  Wiggs  of  the  Cab¬ 
bage  Patch ,  and  you  will  laugh  and  cheer  up  and  feel 
ashamed  of  your  murmurings,  for  “if  God  be  for  us, 
who  can  be  against  us?”  The  book  in  question  may 
seem  extravagant  at  times,  but  not  impossible.  God 
can  do  as  much  for  you.  Your  case  is  not  so  excep¬ 
tional  as  you  think  and  you  must  disabuse  your  mind 
of  your  self-delusion,  and  allow  God  to  help  you  by 
reigning  in  your  mind  and  heart.  You  only  think  that 
your  case  is  the  worst,  but  you  are  greatly  mistaken. 
I  know  many  more  unfortunate  ones  but  they  have 
joined  their  lives  to  Christ;  their  lives  are  hid  with 
Christ  in  God  and  the  Spirit  of  God  dwells  in  them. 
Hence  they  can  endure  and  they  can  do  all  things 
through  Christ  who  strengtheneth  them. 

You  have  the  same  heavenly  Father  and  because  you 
are  His  child  and  He  has  the  same  love  for  you  and 
cares  for  you,  for  He  seeks  your  welfare  and  He  will 
encourage  and  help  you. 

The  spirit  of  thanksgiving  enriches  us  by  enabling 
us  to  recognize  and  to  appreciate  fully  the  many  bless¬ 
ings  that  we  have,  but  which  we  fail  to  enjoy  because 


Our  Trials 


145 


we  overlook  them  by  having  our  thoughts  completely 
absorbed  in  the  objects  that  are  denied  us.  In  times 
of  sad  bereavement  all  the  affection  seems  centred  on 
the  departed  one  and  the  intense  grief  fills  our  eyes 
with  tears  that  almost  blind  us  to  the  loved  ones  that 
still  remain,  and  we  fail  to  realize  all  that  they  mean 
to  us.  All  has  not  been  taken ;  precious  ones  have  been 
left  to  us,  and  with  the  spirit  of  thanksgiving  for  these, 
we  must  seek  comfort  in  them. 

Years  ago,  a  man  said  to  me  on  Thanksgiving  Day, 
“Why  should  I  give  thanks  to-day?  I  have  nothing 
to  be  thankful  for.  I  have  no  turkey.”  He  seemed 
to  justify  himself  in  reasoning  thus,  but  he  had  much 
to  be  thankful  for.  He  had  a  vigorous  body  and  a 
home,  his  wife  and  child  enjoyed  good  health,  and  had 
no  afflictions  of  body  or  mind,  but  the  lack  of  a  turkey 
was  his  cause  for  complaint.  There  were  men  who 
gladly  would  have  given  millions  of  dollars  for  his 
health  and  lease  of  life. 

We  say  how  thankful  the  miners  must  be  after  being 
rescued  from  days  of  terrible  suffering  in  the  living 
tomb  where  they  were  so  nigh  unto  death  from  want 
and  anxiety.  Blit  should  not  we  be  thankful  who 
never  have  suffered  such  dreadful  anxiety  from  impend¬ 
ing  death?  We  have  much  for  which  we  should  re¬ 
joice  and  be  thankful.  The  believer  has  valuable  as¬ 
sets  and  he  should  ever  estimate  them  at  their  full  value 
and  not  overlook  them  in  times  of  trouble,  but  rejoice 
in  the  Lord  always. 

Christ  is  your  Savior  ;  you  were  included  in  His  love 
and  sacrifice  on  the  cross  and  He  did  not  die  in  vain. 
He  is  willing  and  able  to  do  all  that  He  promised  and 


146 


Help  When  Tc:npted  and  Tided 

you  cannot  doubt  him,  for  He  gave  full  proof  of  His 
love  and  countless  numbers  will  testify  in  His  behalf. 
What  you  need  in  }mur  trials  is  not  to  yield  to  morbid 
feelings  of  despondency,  but  to  make  a  venture  of  your 
faith.  Arouse  yourself  and  stand  upon  your  feet  like 
a  man,  and  then — commanding  all  your  resources  and 
with  faith  in  the  help  of  the  Almighty — say  Avitli  a  will, 
“What  others  have  been  able  to  endure,  I  can  endure. 
I  will  be  a  free  man  and  not  a  weak  and  coAvardly 
slave.”  All  despise  a  coward  and  a  weakling,  but  they 
admire  a  strong  man  with  character  and  moral  convic¬ 
tions. 

Think  of  the  millions  avIio  have  passed  through  sim¬ 
ilar  trying  experiences.  Their  loss  was  just  as  great 
as  yours;  their  heartaches  just  as  sad  and  their  disap¬ 
pointments  as  bitter.  Others  suffered  wrongs  and  per¬ 
secutions  far  greater  and  they  were  often  frail  in  body, 
but  grace  was  given  them  to  endure.  I  have  seen  the 
father  die  and  se\Ten  children  left  with  a  poor  mother, 
and  yet  she  clothed  all  the  children,  none  of  them 
starved,  nor  went  to  bed  hungr}7.  Since  then,  they  have 
all  grown  into  manhood  and  womanhood.  Several 
years  ago,  when  in  a  remote  country  place,  a  poor  Avid- 
owed  mother  Avas  left  Avith  her  dependent  children,  the 
neighbors  thought  their  future  looked  very  dark,  but 
none  of  them  was  so  hopeful  as  to  see  the  day  Avhen  one 
of  the  boys  would  fill  the  governor’s  chair  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  God  will  not  forsake  His  own.  Listen 
to  Jesus  as  He  would  inspire  all  with  hope:  “Behold 
the  birds  of  the  heaA^en,  that  they  sow  not  neither  do 
they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns,  and  your  heavenly 
Father  feedeth  them.  Are  not  ye  of  much  more  value 


Our  Trials 


147 


than  they?” 

I  was  profoundly  impressed  with  this  precious  truth 
during  a  vacation  spent  in  upper  Canada.  A  bird  had 
built  her  nest  under  the  roof  of  a  railroad  station  and 
she  had  hatched  five  little  birds  that  filled  the  nest. 
They  were  helpless  to  provide  for  themselves  and  would 
have  perished  had  not  our  heavenly  Father  given  the 
mother  bird  the  strong  instinct  to  provide  for  them. 
Time  and  again  she  would  return  and  bring  a  choice 
morsel  and  each  of  her  brood  would  open  wide  its 
mouth,  but  that  careful  mother  gave  each  one  his  por¬ 
tion  in  turn  and  no  one  was  forgotten.  With  such  a 
lesson  Christ  would  teach  us  that  our  loving  heavenly 
Father  would  see  that  His  own  orphaned  children  are 
fed.  He  touches  the  hearts  of  the  people  to  provide 
for  their  necessities.  Behold  the  orphanages  and  homes 
for  the  needy,  and  yield  not  to  your  gloomy  tempera¬ 
ment,  but  turn  your  mind  to  God  with  a  trustful  and 
loving  heart,  for  the  Lord  will  provide.  No  worthy 
man,  woman,  or  child  need  go  hungry,  for  our  people 
are  ready  to  feed  them. 

“Casting  all  your  anxiety  or  distracting  care  upon 
Him,  for  He  is  concerned  for  you.”  This  is  what  the 
divine  message  in  the  Bible  tells  you  to  do.  It  is  a  most 
precious  revelation  to  know  that  God  is  concerned  for 
our  welfare.  There  can  be  no  mistake  about  it.  It  is 
no  human  speculation  or  mere  supposition ;  somewhat 
dim,  perhaps,  but  the  assurance  of  Holy  Writ.  Get 
this  clear  conception  of  God  and  cling  firmly  to  it  and 
you  are  safe.  God  is  no  indifferent  spectator,  but,  He 
watches  over  you  with  a  loving  care.  He  is  not  help¬ 
less  nor  inactive,  but  “He  worketh  in  you  to  will  and 


148  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

to  do  according  to  His  good  pleasure.”  “Fear  thou 
not,  for  I  am  with  you;  be  not  dismayed,  for  I  am  thy 
God;  I  will  strengthen  thee,  yea,  I  will  uphold  thee 
with  the  right  hand  of  my  righteousness.”  Grasp  this 
precious  truth,  hold  it  tenaciously  and  cherish  it  as  you 
do  the  encouraging  words  of  your  dearest  absent 
friend.  Repeat  it  over  and  over  again  when  tried,  un¬ 
til  all  gloomy  thoughts  are  crowded  out  and  the  words 
of  your  Divine  helper  take  complete  possession  of  your 
mind.  Let  the  words  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly,  as 
the  Apostle  exhorts  you.  You  can  have  just  as  clear 
a  conception  of  Christ  in  your  mind  as  you  can  of  some 
absent  friend,  for  the  historic  Christ  of  the  Gospel  is 
as  real  as  any  being  that  ever  appeared  on  earth,  and 
we  must  connect  with  him  all  his  most  precious  say¬ 
ings.  It  is  the  Christ  who  speaks  to  us  through  his 
promises.  He  can  and  will  fulfill  His  promises.  He  is 
the  same  Jesus  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,  and  he 
is  just  as  near  and  real  to  us  as  he  was  to  his  con¬ 
temporaries  in  Palestine. 

The  elements  of  time  and  geographical  distance  are 
no  barriers  for  the  mind  and  heart  of  man.  They  can¬ 
not  eliminate  nor  obscure  the  image  of  the  object  of 
our  affection  and  contemplation.  We  can  go  back 
easily  in  thought  through  the  centuries,  and  in  a  mo¬ 
ment  of  time,  to  the  period  of  history  when  Jesus  was 
incarnate  among  men,  and  we  can  transport  ourselves 
from  the  familiar  scenes  about  us  to  the  memorable 
ones  witnessed  in  that  land  when  Jesus  preached  the 
kingdom  of  God.  We  can  have  as  clear  and  realistic 
mental  pictures  of  the  scenes  then  enacted  in  that  dis¬ 
tant  land  as  we  can  of  the  events  that  happened  but 


Our  Trials 


149 


yesterday  in  the  adjoining  street.  Nay,  more,  in  our 
home  churches  we  can  realize  the  presence  and  joys 
of  Christ  as  fully  as  we  can  when  worshipping  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  in  Jerusalem.  I  have 
spent  weeks  in  Jerusalem  on  several  occasions  and  dur¬ 
ing  Holy  Week  I  have  attended  the  worship  of  the 
Easter  Services,  yet — with  all  my  intense  longings  for 
a  deeper  consciousness  of  Christ’s  presence,  I  must  con¬ 
fess  that  often  I  have  experienced  as  real  and  precious 
fellowship  with  my  Lord  and  Master  in  the  homes  of 
my  people  and  in  worshipping  with  them  in  the  Church. 
This  is  in  accordance  with  Christ’s  promise:  “Lo,  I 
am  with  you  always.”  He  is  not  localized.  Wherever 
the  human  soul  goes  out  to  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth, 
there  is  fellowship  with  Him. 

We  shall  be  greatly  helped  in  our  trials  by  remem¬ 
bering  that  others  passed  through  similar  and  even 
greater  ones,  and  what  they  were  enabled  to  endure, 
we  can  endure  also.  This  vision  and  contemplation 
will  inspire  us  with  confidence  when  suffering  from  our 
most  trying  experiences — for  we  have  the  same  heavenly 
Father’s  loving  care  and  the  same  Christ  to  sustain  and 
comfort  us,  and  who  has  promised  that  His  grace  is 
sufficient  for  us.  Become  familiar  with  the  life  and 
character  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  for  no  man  ever  made  a 
greater  venture  of  his  faith  and  tested  Christ  Jesus 
more  thoroughly,  hence  his  testimony  is  worth  listen¬ 
ing  to.  I  like  to  meditate  upon  the  testimony  of  Paul, 
for  he  speaks  from  personal  experience  after  many 
years  of  severe  testing  from  privations,  suffering,  and 
cruel  persecution.  He  could  not  be  mistaken  for  he 
had  tried  the  faith  in  Christ  and  never  found  Him  want- 


150  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

ing>  as  his  triumphant  confessions  abundantly  show. 
He  did  not  inherit  this  faith,  but — as  a  man  of  learning 
and  a  profound  and  vigorous  thinker  in  the  study  of 
the  Jewish  religion — he  had  grown  up  after  the 
straightest  sect  and  lived  a  Pharisee.  He  distinguished 
himself  as  the  fiery  persecutor  of  Christianity  and, 
armed  with  authority,  he  went  to  Damascus  to  arrest 
all  whom  he  might  find  as  followers  of  Christ.  But  be¬ 
fore  approaching  the  city,  Christ  called  to  him  from 
heaven  and  Paul  became  the  most  zealous  advocate  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  rejoiced  in  prison 
and  under  stripes  that  he  was  accounted  worthy  to 
suffer  for  the  sake  of  his  Master.  Visit  him  in  his 
prison  at  Philippi,  Jerusalem,  Caesarea,  Rome,  or  else¬ 
where  and  listen  to  his  words.  Never  does  he  lose  faith 
or  murmur  against  his  Savior  because  of  his  suffer¬ 
ings  nor  regret  his  sacrifices  for  Christ,  but  always 
speaks  with  a  triumphant  faith.  Hear  him — as  in 
brief  review — he  recalls  some  of  the  trials  through 
which  he  had  passed,  for  he  could  tell  of  his  “abun¬ 
dant  labors  in  prisons  more  abundantly,  in  stripes  above 
measure,  of  the  Jewrs  five  times  I  received  forty  stripes 
save  one.  Thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods,  once  was  I 
stoned,  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck,  a  night  and  a  day 
have  I  been  in  the  deep;  in  journeyings  often,  in  perils 
of  rivers,  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils  of  my  countrymen, 
in  perils  of  false  brethren,  in  labor  and  travail,  in 
watchings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings  often, 
in  cold  and  nakedness  .  .  .  besides  anxiety  for  all  the 
churches.” 

We  must  not  lose  faith  and  sink  into  despondency 
because  of  our  trials,  for  they  are  not  equal  to  those 


Oar  Trials 


151 


Paul  endured.  Surely  he  had  the  most  convincing  and 
undeniable  evidence  for  his  faith.  He  was  a  cotempoi- 
ary  and  knew  the  men  who  had  seen  and  heard  his  Loi  d 
and  Master.  Nay,  more,  he  tells  us  that  he  himself 
had  seen  the  Lord  and  received  special  revelations  from 
Him.  To  convince  the  once  zealous  Pharisee  and  con¬ 
vert  him  to  Christ,  required  the  most  indubitable  pi  oof, 
and  this  was  confirmed  by  the  steadfastness  of  his  sub¬ 
sequent  life. 

At  Lystra  the  multitude  scarcely  could  be  restrained 
from  sacrifices  to  the  Apostles  because,  through  the 
words  of  Paul,  the  impotent  man  had  been  healed. 
Later,  that  same  multitude  was  converted  into  an  an¬ 
gry  mob  by  the  wicked  Jews  who  came  from  Antioch 
and  Iconium,  and  they  stoned  Paul  and  dragged  him 
out  of  the  city  like  a  dog,  supposing  that  he  was  dead. 

At  Jerusalem  the  fanatical  Jews  violently  seized 
Paul  in  the  temple,  dragged  him  out,  and  sought  to 
kill  him,  when  the  chief  captain  rushed  to  his  rescue 
with  the  Roman  guard  and  saved  him  from  the  murder¬ 
ous  mob.  Standing  on  the  stairs  leading  to  the  castle, 
the  captain  gave  the  Apostle  permission  to  speak  to  the 
Jews.  They  listened  for  a  time  until  he  told  how  God 
sent  him  unto  the  Gentiles :  £<And  then  they  lifted  up 
their  voice  and  said  ‘Away  with  such  a  fellow  from 
the  earth ;  for  it  is  not  fit  that  he  should  live.’  ”  The 
verdict  of  history  has  proved  that  their  judgment  was 
false,  for  none  of  them  was  so  fit  to  live  as  he,  and 
none  of  them  blessed  humanity  as  he  did,  but  all  that 
consecrated  and  unselfish  life  did  not  secure  for  him 
immunity  from  many  of  the  most  grievous  trials.  How¬ 
ever,  his  faith  never  failed  him,  and  amid  the  greatest 


Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

trials  he  never  regretted  following  Christ,  nor  showed 
a  craven  spirit.  During  that  tempestuous  voyage 
across  the  Mediterranean,  after  many  days  of  terrible 
anxiety,  amid  the  storm  that  threatened  them  with  dis¬ 
aster,  and  when  captain  and  sailors  despaired  of  es¬ 
cape,  then  Paul — the  prisoner — stood  forth  in  the 
midst  of  them  and  inspired  all  with  hope  by  his  cheer¬ 
ing  words.  He  was  the  most  heroic  and  hopeful  one  of 
them  all  for  he  remembered  the  night  when — confined 
in  the  castle  in  Jerusalem,  after  escaping  from  being 
torn  to  pieces  by  the  angry  mob — how  the  Lord  stood 
by  him  and  said :  “Be  of  good  cheer,  for  as  thou  hast 
testified  concerning  me  at  Jerusalem,  so  must  thou  bear 
witness  also  at  Rome.”  Hence  he  knew  that  he  could 
not  perish  at  sea,  since  the  Lord  had  sent  him  to  preach 
in  Rome,  and  he  would  keep  his  promise,  for  Paul  was 
a  man  who  trusted  God  with  an  unshaken  faith.  But 
that  very  night,  on  the  stormy  deep,  the  Lord  remem¬ 
bered  him  with  a  special  message  as  the  Apostle  told 
them:  “For  there  stood  by  me  this  night  an  angel  of 
the  God  whose  I  am,  whom  also  I  serve,  saying  ‘Fear 
not,  Paul:  thou  must  stand  before  Casar,  and  lo,  God 
hath  granted  thee  all  them  that  sail  with  thee.’  Where¬ 
fore,  sirs,  be  of  good  cheer,  for  I  believe  God,  that  it 
shall  be  even  so  as  it  hath  been  spoken  unto  me.” 

Paul  was  a  thoroughly  human  man.  He  had  tempta¬ 
tions  and  often  was  tried  and  cast  down,  but  not  in 
despair,  for  he  never  was  forsaken.  He  said,  “I  can 
do  all  things  through  him  that  strengtheneth  me.”  He 
suffered  from  the  thorn  in  the  flesh,  whatever  that 
grievous  physical  infirmity  may  have  been,  and  from 
which  he  thrice  besought  the  Lord  to  deliver  him.  It 


Our  Trials 


153 


seemed  to  be  a  great  hindrance  in  his  work  and  doubt¬ 
less  he  would  have  continued  to  pray  for  its  lemoval, 
but  the  Lord  gave  him  this  answer  of  hope:  “My 
grace  is  sufficient  for  thee.”  We  shall  have  afflictions 
from  which  we  cannot  be  delivered,  such  as  the  nat 
ural  infirmities  of  the  body,  disappointments,  sickness, 
bereavements  and  death,  but  for  all  these  when  they 
come,  God’s  grace  will  be  sufficient  for  us  also. 

Visit  Paul  in  Rome  and  listen  to  his  testimony  when 
a  prisoner:  “I  know  him  whom  I  have  believed  and  I 
am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  guard  that  which  I 
have  committed  unto  him  against  that  day.  ’  I  have 
fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  the  course,  I  have 
kept  the  faith.”  “At  my  first  defense  no  one  took  my 
part,  but  all  forsook  me ;  may  it  not  be  laid  to  theii 
account.  But  the  Lord  stood  by  me  and  strengthened 
me.  .  .  .  The  Lord  will  deliver  me  from  every  evil  and 
will  save  me  unto  his  heavenly  kingdom.” 

Like  the  Apostle,  we  must  ever  keep  two  worlds  in 
view,  and  then — with  him — we  may  reckon  “that  the 
sufferings  of  this  present  life  are  not  worthy  to  be  com¬ 
pared  with  the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed  to  usward. 
“For  we  know  that  if  the  earthly  house  of  our  taber¬ 
nacle  were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  from  God,  a 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. 
It  is  altogether  reasonable  that  we  should  keep  our 
eternal  and  heavenly  inheritance  in  view,  just  as  the 
rightful  heir  to  an  estate  ever  keeps  in  mind  and  en¬ 
joys  the  future  possession  that  shall  be  his  when  he 
reaches  his  majority.  If  we  put  our  implicit  trust  in 
Christ  with  the  same  unflinching  faith,  and  ever  view 
both  worlds  in  their  right  relation  to  each  other,  then 


154 


Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

we  may  also  be  enabled  to  say: — “Wherefore  we  faint 
not;  but  though  our  outward  man  is  decaying,  yet  our 
mwaid  man  is  renewed  day  by  day.  For  our  light  af¬ 
fliction,  which  is  for  the  moment,  worketh  for  us  more 
and  more  exceedingly  an  eternal  weight  of  glory ;  while 
we  look  not  to  the  things  which  are  seen  but  at  the 
things  which  are  not  seen ;  for  the  things  which  are  seen 

aie  temporal;  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are 
eternal.” 

Now  the  present  material  things  seem  the  most  to 
many,  but  in  a  moment  the  unseen  spiritual  becomes 
the  most  real,  as  when  the  loved  ones  pass  from  us  to 
the  unseen  world.  They  are  still  real  to  us,  yea,  a  very 
part  of  us,  as  we  realize  when  the  heart  almost  breaks 
with  the  agony  of  bereavement.  Then  the  unseen  world 
becomes  very  real  to  us  because  the  loved  ones  have 
gone  thither,  and  in  the  depths  of  our  soul  we  follow 
them.  To  them  that  once  unseen  world  is  now  the 
most  real.  But  soon  we  shall  follow  them,  and  then 
that  spiritual  world  will  be  most  real  to  us,  and  this 
world  will  no  longer  interest  us  most. 

Death  causes  great  sorrows  and  no  wonder  that  we 
diead  it.  We  would  defer  it  and  we  do  everything  pos¬ 
sible  to  prolong  life, — not  because  we  fear  death,  but 
because  of  the  bitter  grief  and  the  terrible  loneliness 
caused  by  it  and  the  violence  to  the  attractions  of  life. 
Everything  is  changed,  the  charms  of  life  have  been 
suddenly  blasted  and  its  joys  quenched.  Instead  of 
rejoicing,  there  is  mourning,  and  then  men  are  ready 
to  take  up  the  lament  of  Job:  “I  would  not  live  al- 
way.”  Then  we  must  turn  to  Christ  who  brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light  in  the  Gospel  and  assures  us 


Our  Trials 


155 


of  our  life  eternal.  If  we  could  see  our  loved  ones  but 
for  a  moment  in  their  heavenly  home,  then  our  grief 
would  be  mitigated  in  knowing  that  they  were  blessed, 
and  had  escaped  all  the  trials  and  sorrows  of  this  life. 
But  we  profess  to  believe  this,  and  we  should  cling  to 
the  divine  promise  and  then  “the  God  of  hope  would 
fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing.” 

By  the  sheer  power  of  our  will  we  should  at  times 
change  our  point  of  view  that  is  temporary  at  most 
and  transport  ourselves  in  imagination  to  our  heavenly 
home,  and  from  that  abode  contemplate  the  trials  of 
this  life  and  as  they  will  appear  to  us  fifty  years  hence, 
or  possibly  much  earlier.  It  is  only  a  matter  of  time 
and  it  does  not  seem  long  since  our  parents  and  loved 
ones  went  thither,  and  soon  our  summons  will  come. 
Our  time  on  earth  seems  short  as  we  take  a  retrospect 
of  the  few  years  we  have  lived,  but  the  years  to  come 
will  also  be  few  on  earth  and  hence  we  should  never 
separate  this  life  from  the  heavenly,  but  keep  that  home 
in  view  when  suffering  the  trials  that  afflict  us  here. 
This  was  a  weighty  argument  for  Paul  when  making  a 
forcible  contrast  between  the  temporal  and  the  eternal, 
and  we  should  employ  the  same  comparison. 

Though  we  would  escape  the  trials  of  life,  often  they 
prove  to  be  great  blessings  and  necessary  for  our  high¬ 
est  development.  We  never  would  develop  into  the 
noblest  manhood  and  womanhood  and  appreciate  the 
lot  of  others  unless  we  had  passed  through  the  school 
of  similar  struggles.  They  teach  us  from  personal  ex¬ 
perience  what  otherwise  we  could  not  have  known,  and 
they  fit  us  for  a  life  of  service  for  others.  This  affords 
the  highest  satisfaction  possible  for  man  to  enjoy.  He 


156  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

alone  truly  can  suffer  with  another  who  has  suffered  a 
similar  sorrow  in  his  own  experience.  The  two  bereaved 
mothers  know  what  the  word  sympathy  originally  meant 
and  they  can  suffer  with  each  other.  Severe  trials  that 
once  tried  the  souls  of  men  and  women,  and  from  which 
they  prayed  to  escape  as  seeming  misfortunes,  made 
them  heroes  and  heroines,  and  secured  for  them  a  proud 
immortality.  There  can  be  no  great  souls  developed 
except  through  the  schooling  of  trials.  Great  men  must 
be  grown  just  as  an  efficient  military  force  must  be 
trained.  Trials  test  and  ennoble  us  to  see  ourselves 
as  we  are.  They  broaden  our  horizon  and  show  us 
the  path  that  others  trod  before  they  achieved  suc¬ 
cess.  The  young  often  make  the  mistake  of  seeking 
for  the  achievement  of  masters  of  finance  by  a  single 
bound  or  gamble,  instead  of  starting  at  the  base  of 
the  ladder,  practicing  the  same  economy,  self-denial, 
and  principles  of  business.  The  successful  men  did 
not  squander  their  time,  health,  and  earnings,  but  im¬ 
proved  them  and  seized  every  opportunity  in  the  way 
of  advancement.  They  were  disciplined  by  years  of 
trials  as  they  struggled  for  the  mastery  in  achievement. 

No  one  can  expect  to  escape  from  the  trials  of  life, 
for  they  are  the  common  lot  of  humanity.  But  there 
are  often  trials  of  the  most  grievous  character  and  it 
is  wonderful  how  bravely  some  have  endured  them.  At 
times  I  have  been  amazed  at  the  power  of  endurance 
displayed  by  men  and  women  under  the  most  trying  cir¬ 
cumstances.  They  endured  because  they  realized  God’s 
presence  and  that  His  grace  was  sufficient  for  them. 
They  trusted  God  and  they  realized  that  He  is  precious 
to  those  who  believe  in  Ilim.  God  is  our  heavenly 


Our  Trials 


157 


Father  and  He  can  sustain  His  children.  “Man  shall 
not  live  by  bread  alone  but  by  every  word  that  proceed¬ 
ed  out  of  the  mouth  of  God  ”  for  He  is  deeply  con¬ 
cerned  for  the  highest  welfare  of  His  children.  Hence 
we  often  have  been  surprised  at  the  strong  faith,  pa¬ 
tient  endurance,  and  cheerful  disposition  of  some  when 
suffering  the  great  trials  of  life,  for  they  realized  fel¬ 
lowship  with  Christ  in  their  suffering. 

We  must  look  to  our  suffering  Savior  and  cling  to 
Him  and  His  precious  promises  and  not  nourish  and 
encourage  our  unsubstantial  and  ever-changing  feelings. 
Whatever  our  moods  may  be,  Christ  remains  ever  the 
same.  Make  the  personal  Christ  a  supreme  and  con¬ 
trolling  reality  in  your  daily  life.  Feel  the  power  of 
His  presence  and  indwelling  as  you  meditate  upon  His 
words:  “Abide  in  Me  and  I  will  abide  in  you,”  until 
you  realize  that  mystical  union  by  His  quickening  of 
your  spirit  and  inspiration  of  your  thoughts  and  pur¬ 
poses. 

He  helps  by  “his  working  which  worketh  in  me  might¬ 
ily”  is  the  testimony  of  Paul,  and  we  have  the  same 
Christ  who  wants  to  help  and  save  us.  Personalize 
Jesus  so  that  in  imagination  you  may  see  Him  by  vis¬ 
ualizing  the  scenes  of  His  life  among  men,  for  you  have 
the  Gospel  record  of  the  facts  connected  with  that  life. 
Then  you  will  realize  the  power  of  His  love  in  your 
heart  and  be  able  to  say  with  the  disciple  of  Jesus  after 
His  ascension :  “Whom  not  having  seen  we  love for 
we  can  love  the  absent  ones  and  those  in  heaven  whom 
we  cannot  see.  To  the  believer,  God  is  no  dim  abstrac¬ 
tion  but  a  personal  spiritual  being,  who  was  in  Christ, 
reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  and  they  that  have 


158  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

seen  Christ  have  seen  the  Father  also.  He  abides  with 
us  and  this  immanent  personal  spirit  is  just  what 
Christ  promised,  and  this  assurance  is  our  hope,  peace, 
joy,  and  salvation.  Nothing  could  separate  Paul  from 
the  love  of  Christ,  but  he  was  ever  ready  to  endure  all 
things  for  His  sake,  for  Christ  was  a  personal  reality. 
Make  the  Christ  of  history  very  real  by  familiarizing 
yourself  with  His  personality  and  life  as  recorded  in 
the  Gospels. 

No  one  need  question  the  historic  facts,  for  they 
have  been  tested  thoroughly  and  established  beyond 
reasonable  controversy,  and  what  we  need  is  not  to  try 
to  prove  them  again,  but  to  get  such  a  clear  conception 
of  them  that  we  may  see  them  in  all  their  reality,  just 
as  in  our  minds  we  have  a  clear  picture  of  the  charac¬ 
ter  and  life  of  Washington,  not  from  any  personal  ob¬ 
servation  but  from  recorded  history.  By  a  similar  pro¬ 
cess  we  may  be  able  to  gain  a  clear  picture  of  the  per¬ 
son  and  life  of  Christ  Jesus  and  such  clear  realism  is 

all  important  for  our  fellowship  and  living  faith  in 
Him. 

The  Greeks  who  came  to  the  disciples  had  heard  of 
the  Master,  but  they  yearned  for  an  objective  realism 
and  they  said:  “Sirs,  we  would  see  Jesus.”  On  the 
evening  of  that  resurrection  day,  after  all  the  reports 
and  uncertainty  respecting  His  resurrection  from  the 
dead,  Jesus  suddenly  appeared  in  the  midst  of  the  dis¬ 
ciples,  and  the  record  tells  us  that  “The  disciples  were 
glad  when  they  saw  the  Lord.”  \  ou  cannot  see  the 
physical  Jesus  as  the  disciples  did,  but  that  is  not  nec¬ 
essary,  and  even  doubting  Thomas,  when  he  saw  Jesus, 
did  not  need  the  tangible  material  tests  that  he  had  de- 


Our  Trials 


159 


dared  previously  that  he  would  insist  upon.  He  was 
thoroughly  convinced  without  them  and  the  disciples 
were  never  so  heroic,  and  so  invincible  m  faith  as  they 
became  when  their  eyes  saw  Jesus  no  more.  They  had 
the  overmastering  consciousness  that  God  was  with 
them  and  that  they  must  obey  God  rather  than  Man. 
That  God-consciousness  made  the  timid  disciples 
strong,  and  nothing  could  deter  them  from  their  pur¬ 
pose  as  they  went  forth  to  conquer  the  world  for  the 
Christ  who  had  given  them  their  commission,  coupled 
with  the  assurance:  “And  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway. 
They  knew  the  Christ  and  realized  the  sustaining  and 
comforting  power  of  His  presence. 

We  cannot  everestimate  the  value  of  this  conscious¬ 
ness  and  we  should  cultivate  it  until  it  takes  complete 
possession  of  us,  for  such  personal  fellowship  is  what 
Jesus  promised  us  and  it  is  our  privilege  to  enjoy.  He 
always  is  present  with  us  in  the  fulness  of  his  divine 
majesty  as  the  incarnate  Son  of  God,  and  through  his 
eternal  Spirit  he  inspires,  encourages,  -sustains,  and 
comforts  in  every  time  of  need.  We  should  not  be 
satisfied  until  we  in  a  measure,  at  least,  can  say  with 
the  Apostle,  “Christ  dwelleth  in  me.” 

Always  trust  in  God  and  do  your  best,  and  then  you 
cannot  fail.  You  have  done  your  duty  and  neithei 
God  nor  man  can  demand  more  of  you.  But  have  faith 
in  God  at  all  times.  No  matter  how  many  and  rich 
His  promises  may  be,  unless  we  avail  ourselves  of  them 
and  believe  in  God  and  accept  His  proffered  help,  we 
get  no  benefit.  Faith  is  the  will  and  hand  of  the  man 
struggling  amid  the  waves,  but  who  at  once  seizes  the 
life-preserver  when  it  is  thrown  to  him.  What  we  may 


160  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

be  unable  to  do  alone,  we  can  do  when  our  faith  takes 
hold  of  Christ,  for  then  we  have  His  superadded  grace 
to  strengthen  us  by  our  union  with  Him.  No  matter 
what  God  may  be  and  may  desire  to  do  for  us,  we  must 
have  our  minds  in  a  receptive  state  to  receive  His  help, 
His  peace  and  joy,  for  “unto  him  that  believeth,  He 
is  precious.”  We  know  the  power  that  our  mothers 
exercised  over  our  minds  when  they  sought  to  comfort 
us  in  times  of  trouble,  but  the  secret  of  that  power  was 
in  the  fact  that  we  were  persuaded  that  they  loved  us, 
and  we  confidently  believed  what  they  promised  us.  In 
like  manner,  we  must  feel  the  power  of  Christ’s  love 
and  trust  Him  with  a  firm  faith  and  then  we  will  real¬ 
ize  His  sustaining  and  comforting  power.  It  was  this 
invincible  faith  in  the  ever-present,  Almighty  Helper 
that  made  the  heroes  of  the  Church,  for  weak  men  and 
women  were  made  strong.  That  persistent  faith  was 
the  secret  of  the  indomitable  will  and  triumph  of  the 
Apostle  Paul.  He  trusted  not  in  himself  alone,  but  in 
Christ  who  dwelt  in  him,  and  hence  his  dauntless  spirit. 

When  cheerless  and  most  sorely  distressed  in  spirit, 
suffering  from  losses  and  disappointments  and  the  in¬ 
firmities  of  the  body,  with  the  buoyant  spirit  of  youth 
gone,  do  not  yield  to  feelings,  for  nothing  is  so  unre¬ 
liable.  In  such  moments  turn  to  God’s  Word  for  relief, 
and  do  not  afflict  your  soul  with  morbid  thoughts  that 
make  you  miserable,  but  repeat  the  comforting  mes¬ 
sages  that  you  need :  “Why  art  thou  cast  down,  O  my 
soul?  and  why  art  thou  disquieted  within  me?  Hope 
thou  in  God :  for  I  shall  yet  praise  Him,  who  is  the 
help  of  my  countenance  and  my  God.”  “Come  unto 
me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 


Our  Trials 


161 


give  you  rest  .  .  .  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls.”  “Peace  I  leave  with  you;  my  peace  I  give 
unto  you ;  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto  you. 
Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  fear¬ 
ful.”  “I  will  come  again  and  receive  you  unto  myself: 
that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also.” 

Even  our  Savior  could  not  give  us  more  previous 
assurances  than  those  contained  in  the  Gospel,  and  we 
do  not  need  more,  but  we  should  know  and  cherish  these 
and  call  them  to  remembrance  until  we  feel  their  power. 
Thus  we  may  crowd  out  and  keep  out  the  many  dis¬ 
tracting  thoughts  that  afflict  the  soul  with  doubts  and 
fears,  but  do  no  good.  Use  your  will  power  and  think 
the  thoughts  that  make  for  peace  and  triumph.  Cul¬ 
tivate  the  spirit  of  thanksgiving  until  it  becomes  a 
habit,  and  then  you  will  escape  many  of  the  anxious 
thoughts  that  afflict  the  soul  when  mastered  by  the 
spirit  of  corroding  care  and  useless  worry.  The 
Apostle  gives  the  antidote  that  was  efficacious  in  his 
own  life  and  we  should  use  it :  “In  nothing  be  anxious ; 
but  in  everything  by  prayer  and  supplication  with 
thanksgiving  let  your  requests  be  known  unto  God. 
And  the  peace  of  God  that  passeth  all  understanding 
shall  guard  your  hearts  and  your  thoughts  in  Christ 
Jesus.” 

When  disturbed  with  anxious  thoughts,  worried,  and 
nervous,  then  look  unto  Jesus  and  listen  to  his  com¬ 
forting  words :  “Peace  I  leave  with  you ;  my  peace  I 
give  unto  you;  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto 
you.  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled;  neither  let  it 
be  fearful.”  Repeat  them  until  you  realize  that  peace 
of  God. 


162  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

When  cast  down  and  almost  overcome  with  the  sor¬ 
row  of  great  disappointment,  then  try  to  master  your 
hearts  and  feelings,  and  repeat  the  words  of  the  Psalm¬ 
ist:  “God  is  my  refuge  and  my  strength— a  very  pres¬ 
ent  help  in  trouble.”  These  passages  and  many  others 
you  should  store  in  your  mind,  and  meditate  upon  them 
in  time  of  trouble — “ever  looking  unto  Jesus,  for 
there  is  an  uplift  of  helpfulness  in  that  look.  Repeat 
choice  passages  frequently  until  they  become  a  part  of 
you,  and  then  you  will  realize  their  power. 

The  temptation  in  times  of  great  disappointment 
and  sorrow,  is  to  think  only  of  our  sorrows,  and  to  lose 
sight  of  all  else  that  remains.  Rachel  refused  to  be 
comforted  in  bereavement,  because  her  children  were 
not  with  her.  When  Jacob  was  led  to  believe  that  his 
favorite  son,  Joseph,  had  been  slain,  he  mourned  many 
days,  though  all  his  sons  and  daughters  endeavored  to 
comfort  him,  but  he  refused  to  be  comforted;  and  he 
said:  “For  I  will  go  to  Sheol,  to  my  son,  mourning.” 
He  abandoned  all  hope,  refused  to  consider  the  things 
that  remained,  and  concluded  that  there  was  nothing 
else  worth  living  for.  It  was  the  look  and  feeling  of 
despair ;  but  he  was  greatly  mistaken  as  to  his  forecast 
of  the  future. 

So  was  Job  when  his  dreadful  misfortunes  proved  too 
much  for  him.  He  was  overwhelmed  with  grief,  and 
like  many  others  in  times  of  great  adversity,  he  wished 
that  he  were  dead.  Nay,  more,  he  wished  that  he 
never  had  been  born;  for  he  was  weary  of  his  life,  be¬ 
cause  of  the  dreadful  afflictions  ;  and  he  thought  only  of 
these,  and  forgot  the  days  of  the  right  hand  of  the 
Lord  when  he  rejoiced  greatly  with  his  happy  family 


Our  Trials 


/ 


163 


amid  signal  prosperity.  But  the  tables  had  been 
turned,  and  hence  he  said,  “Man  that  is  born  of  woman, 
is  of  few  days  and  full  of  trouble,”  for  he  thought  only 
of  his  sorrows,  and  did  not  hope  for  the  day  when 
Jehovah  would  “turn  the  captivity  of  Job,”  and  bless 
the  latter  end,  even  more  than  the  beginning. 

In  our  sorrows  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  Christ  and 
His  precious  promises;  for  He  cares  for  us  though 
we  see  not  the  hand  that  leads  us.  Like  Mary,  oui 
tears  may  blind  us  to  the  presence  of  Jesus  himself; 
for  on  Easter  morning,  she  wept  so  bitterly  that  she 
failed  to  recognize  Him,  even  when  He  said  unto  her . 
“Woman,  why  weepest  thou?”  Not  until  He  called  her 
by  her  name,  Mary,  did  she  recognize  her  gracious  Lord 
and  Master.  She  was  controlled  by  sorrow  and  disap¬ 
pointment  in  not  finding  the  dead  body  of  Jesus  in  the 
tomb  where  it  had  been  laid  on  Good  Friday.  Now 
the  tomb  was  empty  and  that  body  had  disappeared. 
But  she  should  have  rejoiced;  for  the  living  Christ  who 
had  risen  from  the  dead,  meant  infinitely  more  to  her 
and  to  all  the  world,  than  the  lifeless  body  in  the 
tomb.  She  had  forgotten  the  words  of  Jesus,  and  hence 
she  failed  to  rejoice  when  she  saw  the  empty  tomb. 
Jesus  had  risen  from  the  dead  as  he  had  told  his  dis¬ 
ciples,  though  they  failed  to  understand  and  remember 
it  after  the  tragedy  on  Calvary.  Jesus  was  alive  for 
evermore,  and  now  we  have  unquestioned  proof  that 
because  He  lives,  we  shall  live  also  in  the  spirit  world 
when  this  brief  earthly  career  ends.  No  wonder  that 
Christ  said  to  Mary,  “Woman,  why  weepest  thou?”  for 
she  should  have  rejoiced.  We  often  weep  and  refuse  to 
be  comforted,  though  Jesus  is  near;  for  we  see  only 


164  Help  When  Tempted  and  Tried 

our  trouble,  and  not  its  real  meaning  and  relation  to 
the  eternal  future.  Without  faith,  there  is  no  hope, 
only  despair,  and  all  noble  achievement  would  be  im¬ 
possible.  Faith  is  “The  victory  that  overcometh  the 
world.”  It  has  made  all  the  heroes  past  and  present ; 
and  all  the  devoted  mothers  with  their  lives  consecrated 
to  a  supreme  purpose. 

Faith  is  essential  to  the  most  ordinary  domestic, 
social,  business,  and  political  relations ;  and  we  practise 
it  in  the  daily  affairs  of  life.  It  is  not  limited  to  the 
realm  of  religion ;  for  in  all  things  we  walk  by  faith,  not 
by  sight,  not  knowing  what  a  day  may  bring  forth. 
We  all  have  been  stimulated  by  the  dynamic  of  faith  in 
our  own  powers,  as  well  as  in  the  fidelity  of  others. 
Every  investment  is  inseparable  from  faith;  and 
every  employer  must  have  faith  in  his  employee.  Man 
and  wife  must  have  faith  in  each  other.  God  him¬ 
self  has  faith  in  man,  and  entrusts  him  with  the  ex¬ 
tension  of  his  kingdom  on  earth,  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  He  gave  the  commission:  “Go  ye  therefore, 
and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them 
in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  what¬ 
soever  I  commanded  you ;  and  lo  I  am  with  you  always, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.” 

All  the  heroes  of  history  who  achieved  greatness 
were  men  of  strong  faith;  and,  sustained  by  that  irre¬ 
sistible  dynamic,  they  hesitated  not  to  make  the  ven¬ 
ture  of  faith,  even  though  to  men  of  less  vision,  the 
difficulties  seemed  insurmountable.  The  timid  man  or 
the  coward  who  is  held  under  the  tyranny  of  fear,  and 
afraid  to  say  that  his  soul  is  his  own,  would  never  risk 


Our  Trials  165 

his  fortune,  his  life,  and  sacred  honor  for  the  public 
good. 

Jesus  said  unto  his  disciples,  “Have  faith  in  God.” 
This  is  all-important  for  our  peace;  for  “Thou  wilt 
keep  him  in  perfect  peace,  whose  mind  is  stayed  in 
Thee.”  This  repose  of  the  soul  comes  from  the  assur¬ 
ance  of  the  divine  indwelling,  and  that  our  sins  have 
been  forgiven;  for  “being  justified  by  faith,  we  have 
peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.”  But 
in  order  that  we  may  realize  this  peace,  we  must  live  in 
right  relations  with  God.  We  must,  by  an  active  exer¬ 
cise  of  faith,  maintain  the  right  mental  attitude  toward 
Christ ;  and  “let  the  peace  of  God  rule  in  your  hearts.” 
He  must  have  the  supremacy,  and  you  must  keep  your¬ 
self  in  the  love  of  God.  “Being  therefore  justified  by 
faith,  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  through  whom  also  we  have  had  our  access  by 
faith  into  this  grace  whereto  we  stand,  and  we  rejoice 
in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.” 


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